Real time item processing apparatus using a thermal encoder

Abstract From the Canadian patent

Abstract Of The Disclosure, An apparatus for use in endorsing documents like checks, in a banking system. A magnetic stripe is printed or encoded on the back of each document entering the processing system. Human readable endorsement data is also printed next to the magnetic strip at the time that the stripe is being printed. The endorsement data is also magnetically written into a portion of the magnetic stripe during a subsequent real-time operation to provide both machine-readable and human-readable forms of data to facilitate tracing a document's processing trail through several banks. A low-cost method of providing endorsements on checks through using the MICR encoder to print the …