On Sun, 8 Jan 2023 11:50:35 -0500, "Bill Clark wrote:

>A question for everyone. In various books, there are forms. The very early ones, up to a certain time, have, in the bottom right corner, a type of bar code. They appear as:

[pictures eviscerated by the listware]

>Each of these contain a mix of four different patterns (the ABCD at the end of the form name) and there is sometimes a larger separation between groups of them (hence the space in some of the letter patterns). Those patterns are:

[more pictevisceration]

>I am trying to see if there is a specific meaning to the patterns and their use in labelling the forms.
>
>Any ideas?

Looking at the image from
https://adventuresinkalamar.pbworks.com/w/page/151673622/ClassicTraveller I
do recognize them - they are some of the control marks that are used in the
MICR text in bank routings. Their relevance for Traveller forms is simply
"They looked cool when «whoever» designed the forms".

A is the "ON-US" symbol, and on a printed check (cheque, to you folx from
the other side of the Atlantic) brackets the check number, and also follows
the account number.

B is the "TRANSIT" symbol, and brackets the bank routing number.

C is the "AMOUNT" symbol, and does not appear on the check when you write
it - but probably is added when the check is cashed or deposited at the
recipient's bank.

D is the "DASH" symbol, and may or may not appear on the MICR line on your
check.

These are from the E-13B MICR font.

There are two MICR fonts used by banks; this one and CMC-7. Generally, the
UK and former British dominions (including the US) will use E-13B;
additionally, Mexico and Central America, plus Japan and much of Asia use
E-13B. South America and Europe other than the UK generally use CMC-7.
Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Greece do not MICR-encode, they rely on
optical character recognition (OCR), and specifically the OCR-B font. A
number of countries use both OCR and MICR; with the exception of Scotland,
Guyana, and the UK, they all pair OCR-B and CMC-7 (the three exceptions use
E-13B as their MICR font; Guyana and Scotland use OCR-A as their OCR font).

Both MICR fonts have been rendered as TrueType/OpenType outlines; however,
officially, the standard E-13B used by banks only has numerics and the
indicated symbols; "E-13B MICR fonts" that are distributed for general use
for making "cool techie-look" text include alphabetics and special
characters that DO NOT EXIST in formal E-13B, and will likely generate
errors or misreads if printed in appropriate magnetic ink and run through
check processing.

CMC-7 includes alphabetics and a different set of control characters.

Bibliography:

http://techtarget.com/searchsecurity/definition/MICR for the symbol
designations and usage

https://digitalcheck.com/battle-micr-fonts-better-e13b-cmc7/ and
https://diversifiednano.com/micr.aspx for font usage information

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