magnetic ink character recognition

from The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (8 July 2008)

Magnetic Ink Character Recognition
MICR

   <business, printer> (MICR) A {character recognition} system
   using special ink and characters which can be magnetised and
   read automatically.

   MICR is used almost exclusively in the banking industry where
   it is used to print details on cheques to enable automatic
   processing.

   (1995-04-13)