The signature line on checks is not a line at all…
**Secret Revealed**
Although personal checks are antiquated by modern payment standards, they still have some uses. For example, they’re still popular for mailing personal and bill payments and dodging online transaction fees to pay friends or submit payments for online auctions.
Turning a blank piece of paper into any amount of money has obvious fraud potential. Unlike most currency, the paper itself is not particularly special. However, the print on the paper has some security features built in.
The main security feature is copy protection. Copying is thwarted in a couple of ways. First, the light blue ink color used for some print is a specific color of blue that does not photocopy well.
There is also a feature called micro-security print, usually indicated with an MP logo on the signature line. The signature line looks like an ordinary horizontal line, but if you look closely you can see that it is actually made up of very small repeating print, “AUTHORIZED SIGNATURE.” This text is extremely small; so small that it will become completely blurry and unreadable if it is photocopied.
The next time you see a check, try to read the fine print.
Chad Upton is the editor-in-chief of Broken Secrets and an official Yahoo Answers contributor.
Sources: 4checks.com, Yahoo! Answers
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
- Rating:
(68 votes, average: 4.57) - Permalink
- Comments (116)
Loading ...
Subscribe
WOW THAT’S SUPER COOL! NEVER KNEW THAT
INTERESTING
well, I’ll be…
I just found that out. Thanks Yahoo! !
The signature line is ever so interesting. All this time I have written checks and I never knew that. Well, it is always good to learn something new every day.
Thanks
Wow! That’s pretty cool! As many checks as I’ve looked at, both my own (which I now see say “originaldocument”) and at my last job, I have NEVER noticed that!!! Learn something new every day
If Americans became aware and started accessing/depositing in the Public Credit system, i.e. United States Notes, the commercial banks would suffer serious deposit requirement issues with their local FED bank. Lucky for the Fed they managed to quietly destroy ALL $300 million of the actual paper United States
I was able to read it with a powerful magnifying glass . It says “Authorized Signature Only Authorized Signature only” over and over. I was afraid it was small print tricking me into signing a contract.
You think thats interesting, you should see the ‘lines’ that are on Australian money notes. I cant remember which note it is that features the face of Banjo Patterson, but if you look closely you can see that the lines are actually the words of ‘The man from snowy river’, his most famous work.
Wao thats amazing information…thanks for sharing!
@ VIC…lol, that’s funny but so possible.
That is all part of the federal trade name game. The name on the account and the true owner of the account is a federal trade name. Look at your checks and you will see that the name on the account is spelled in all caps, such as JOHN HENRY rather than John Henry, and that is because JOHN HENRY is the federal trade name to which the Federal Reserve holds bond on and makes the Federal Reserve owner of the account. But you signing that check on the “authorized signature only” line makes you liable for the account debt even though the Federal Reserve holds bond on the account and owns the account. That’s right! You put the money in the account but it is not your account. It is JOHN HENRY’s account, the federally owned trade name of the real John Henry. But you can endorse the check in a way which releases you from legal liability and prosecution if you overdraw the account by endorsing the federally owned JOHN HENRY account as John Henry, Agent or Rep rather than John Henry, the authorized signature. By signing John Henry to JOHN HENRY’s federally owned account you accept and volunteer liability but signing as as “John Henry, Agent” makes the check legally unenforceable. Google search “signature without liability” and you will find information on the Federal Reserve trade name game, which very few people are aware of. Very few people are aware of the fact that there a two birth certificates of their birth, one such as John Henry which the hospital issued and JOHN HENRY (all caps trade name) which the government issues and holds bond to and if you look at your checks you will see that the name on the account is in all caps. If you need convincing of that fact then just try to get your bank to issue checks in the way that your name is traditionally printed, such as John Henry rather than JOHN HENRY. It can’t be done.
vic, you *are* signing a contract every time you sign a check. The contract states that you authorize your account to be debited a certain amount in order to pay a person/company.
I’ve known about the fine print on checks for a while now. Our paper money has things like this on it as well. For example, check the “older” $5 bills — there’s a “line” around Abe Lincoln’s head.
Micro printing’s cool! Bills have that, too.
That is fascinating and timely information! I can’t wait for part 2 where the secrets of the shilling are revealed!
I had no idea! Thanks Yahoo!
Vic: In case you didn’t know, a check IS a contract. Specifically, it is a contract to pay the amount shown out of your bank account.
wow that was really interesting. If you found that out on your own your pretty smart
This is what one learns about things that
you did not know that you did not know…coolage
thanks
I now have to read that!!
That is an interesting tidbit. I’ll take a look at mine.
I have two more questions for you, however.
In some banks I’ve noticed that the teller is requiring certain customers to ink their thumb and make a thumbprint on a check they are cashing. What is that all about?
Once, in forty years with the same bank or its predecessors, bought out over the years, I received a call requiring me to verify that I signed a check. I asked why and the clerk said, just because we have a question about your signature. I tried to have her give me a better answer and was unsuccessful. I finally said, of course, that is my signature, the same one you have on file and that I have been using for decades.
My question: What could have prompted this inquiry?
Too bad legally you don’t even need a check to use a check. You can use a piece of lined paper as long as you have specific information. It’s just that most places won’t take it… a bank is legally obligated to though.
That’s very interesting ! After reading this, I had to see for myself. I never noticed that about the signature “line” before reading this.
Interesting! never knew about that. Thanks for sharing
Who new the signature line on checks is not a line at all? Thanks for the post, Chad.
I was looking at the ‘line’ to the left of the ‘signature’ line labeled ‘for’ and noticed that it’s also not a line but another word in small print. what does it say?
Still now I never notice this. New information got from you.
At 74, I learned something. Any day you learn something new, has got to be a good day. Thanks YA
if i had a dollar for everytime this blog told me something that was common knowledge (like another gem on why “the Pittsburgh Steelers are called the Steelers”) i’d be reasonably well-off
Fascinating!
UHHHH…..MAYYYZZING…..
I’m 15 and I was just looking around yahoo answers for tips for my GCSE English Exams and I saw this I was like…. damn man this is helpful o_o
How cool! I never knew!
WOW! I never knew that!
Note. Not all checks have the security features that you mention. It really depends on the check manufacturer and how a person orders replacement checks.
I actually knew about the MP because the first thing I noticed when I got my checks the first time was the Padlock logo on the front. Since it said “Security Features Details on Back,” I flipped the check over and read it. But I guess when you’re an adult, you don’t really have the time to pay attention to these things. I think I was about 13 or 14 when I got my first box of checks in the mail, so I was particularly excited to look at them carefully.
How many of you actually went and checked your checkbooks?
*I saw it on mine!*
More on checks: The name in the upper left corner will always be in all caps. This name is not the real you, but the address of the corporate fiction, or strawman, that your authorized signature represents.
…..that really is micro……………….
very interesting! But when i tell people, they always say “But who uses checks anymore?”
The irony is that I couldn’t see it until I blew up my check with the photo copier by 1200%
I find it shocking the number of people who didn’t know. The security features on checks are nothing more than feel-good measures. Humans these days pretty much never actually inspect a check.
“Back in the day” when I had an actual established account with a bank that valued my being even a smart-time customer, I got a call about a possible check forgery. How did they catch it? They knew me, my habits, and the way I write my checks. I have poor penmanship, so I print everything on my checks except my signature, and instead of doing the cents as 32/00 or similar, my is always 32/XX. The check they received was all in cursive and they instantly knew it wasn’t me.
Those days are long gone. No one cares who you are, no one tries to get to know you, and no one looks at the checks. It’s pretty pointless.
Kewl, learn something new everyday
What’s a “Check” ??
My ‘money’ is either the paper (cash) allowance my wife gives me (lol) , or electronic (which I’m using more and more often), lol
Did you know all those security features are irrelevant as I can hand write you a check – everything on a plain piece of paper with a crayon and that is still a valid check and can be cashed at the bank. Your probably going to get noticed – but at the end of the day – it is still a check
Never even knew it when I did own checks. I don’t own them anymore because I had bounced them a few years ago.
I honestly don’t consider “money” any more real or valuable than paper monopoly money. I have always just “borrowed” what I need and lived very well, Filed bankruptcy twice and my life hasn’t changed a bit, just a piece of meaningless paper. I think when people realize it is only paper and just live the way they want they have true quality of life. We are going on a $5000 vacation in two weeks so, yeah, it’s just paper. I don’t intent on changing my lifestyle one iota either.
Hmm, interesting but having worked for a leading U.S. check printer, I know that legally in the U.S. you can write a check on ANYTHING. it need not have that special signature line, a special form, nor even your account number, as long as it has the name of your bank on it. Yes, you could write a check on a watermelon if you wanted to. Would it be legal? Absolutely! Would a Wal-Mart cashier accept it?? Probably not.
While your article is very interesting, I would have to disagree with you on currency paper not being special. On the contrary it is indeed special. In fact it is not made of wood fibers at all. Instead it is made of cotton and linen fibers. Currency material is also impregnanted with fine red and blue fibers to assist in deterring counterfeiting.
WOW!!! I knew there was some reason that my first pay check sig. line looked wierd when I copied it 4 my scrapbook!! Thanks for pointing that out!
This is merely interesting info for those of us who are moral and honest in our everyday dealingings with the public. It is also very valuable info for the crooks and those who would take advantage of this information. Thanks for nothing!!!
My grocery store doesn’t require me to write anything on my checks. And they don’t care if it is overdrawn or not. They get their money regardless of who presents them with the check!!! Plus, I have to actually press a button to indicate that I don’t want cash back!!
Thanks for this update. It’s useful for people who are still using cheque (check in the US) books for business transactions in third-world countries. It’s not that we do not have credit-cards or ATM etc, but those are too expensive to use for the high ‘service charges’.
I learnt the things as mentioned a few here that you need not to use the prescribed or supplied blank-cheques for transactions. I was told that even if I write on my company’s letterhead pad or any plain paper with the requisite signature/seal (as applicable) then the Bank is bound to pay the money to the bearer of the paper.
Anyway, it’s nice to learn new things and thanks ‘Chad Upton’ and Y!A for facilitating this exchange of information.
And by the way, I am from Bangladesh.
thanks for sharing. this was great jeopardy info
The microprinting means the check may be genuine, but it doesn’t do a thing if the checks are stolen and the bank doesn’t bother checking the signature.
Someone stole a pack of my dad’s checks, made them out to a generic name (Jose Gomez, I think), signed them with an obviously forged signature, and cashed them at some check cashing joint (no account number on the endorsement). The bank NEVER checked the signatures, they just sucked the money out of my dad’s account. Only after my dad filled out a notarized affidavit for each forged check did they start their sloooooow process of getting his money back (thousands of dollars).
That was some interesting trivia and it is actually good to know there is some security measures in the banking system. Thank You
Harold B
Totally didn’t know this, and I work at a bank. Sweet!
I’ll take anyone’s check anytime — send it to me.
Well look at that (and I did!). Learn something new every day
Oh mylanta! I just looked, that is AMAZING! At first, I looked and said, hmm, no, mine are dashes, but then I stared at them and totally saw the words, WOW!
Whale oil beef hooked.
I learned something new today.
Cool Story Bro!!!
I actually nevr knew that. I used one check in my entire lifetime, except for paychecks, and I never paid that much attention to them. Thats very interesting though. I’m about to go ask my mom for her checks to look at, she doesn’t use them very much anways lol
An Interesting Find indeed!
a check is simply a “promissary note” it is a note promissing to pay a future note/debt/amount. this is older than any newer laws instututed upon the writs of promissary notes/checks. this law super ceeds any and all other laws which disrespect the main use of this note.
..also if it is accepted as a promissary payment, it is up to the accepting institution to accept it as payment. The “cashing in ” on the exchange of currency using a promissary note as a note of how much was promised, can be issued out in the form of electronic funds also made available through any instutution which is deemed as able to “print” money for the use of the public/economy nationally or worldwide, etc. it’s pretty simple. Promissary notes can go on as a promise for countless years and decades, as well as eras, if need be. the institution can decide to cash in the promissary note at a time when there are funds available, likewise having the permission to do so with the note maker, as well. lol.
accounting 101.
No Crap! It’s been that way for years — it’s Micro-Printing.
And look at a $20 bill. See the little yellow circles in an arangement? They are on nearly every Country’s Money now so that you cannot copy them on a Copier — it see’s that and stops/prints a blank.
You’re only 10 years too late.
Fascinating!
Wow that’s pretty amazing. Can’t wait to tell people to seem all smart! I’ll make sure to look at some checks soon.
Well, son of a gun! You most certainly learn something new every minute of every day!
I figured this out when I was about 7. I was sitting in the passenger seat while my mom was driving, and I picked up her checkbook and started looking through it. I thought the signature line looked kinda funny, so I looked at it more closely. I noticed little tiny words, so I squinted harder until I could actually read the text.
I was so excited when I figured it out that I started shouting about to my mom. She got so freaked out by my shouts that she nearly crashed the car, haha.
After she calmed down and I told her that the line was made up of words, she didn’t believe me. When she wasn’t driving anymore, I told her to look really closely, and she still couldn’t see them.
Pretty sure she thought I was making the whole thing up…
Note once again that on your account and much of the mail you receive, yoiur name is spelled in all Caps, which may represent your “STRAWMAN,” and not really you. This is part of a scam being perpetrated against us, along with the horrendous policies of the “Fed.”…including the fact that our currency is literally based on debt. Which is just one more reason NOT to support Mr. Obma’s call to pay off the federal debt.
Very interesting. We’ve lot more surprising stuffs all over the world.Thanks for sharing and letting us know.
ken, you’re wrong. my check has my name in lowercase with the first letters capitalized.
Yah I knew that – used to work for a bank years ago.
I still use checks, what with so many gimmicks & spybots lurking in your PC and in the internets.
I still don’t trust using my plastic on the internets unless its with a company I trust & have no problems with because their protections are adequate.
thats amazing
learn something new evey day hey look at this face-_-
T_T
hehe
check my mail or nothing at all
I worked as a teller at a bank, and I don’t ever remember them telling us anything about this in training. This is very useful information.
OMG! i’m going to die of shock!
goooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooood
but
that’s so amazing! its really like “secret revealed”
The use of checks is still a great way to donate at funerals and stuff I just wish that the Charities concerned would get their act together and en-cash them quicker for my own reconciliation purposes.
The signing line is a nice piece of additional knowledge thank you.
I could always read that stuff without magnification. There’s usually “original document” printed on the lines on the back of the check. That’s how I check if a check is real if I have doubts.
Should go over actual cash, only old people write checks anymore. The new style of bills have 3 main security features, a watermark to the right, a band inside the paper reading the value of the bill, and the bottom right number changes color in light. These are present on 20s and 50s but should eventually be found on other bills at some point.
The best way to protect yourself: I order my checks from the bank I have my account, not from fancy looking checks from printshops
Printshops are for other kind of works
nice to know —- knowing is wonderful THANK YOU for the info
My 53-yr-old eyes cannot read the print that forms the signature line. I can just tell that it’s letters, but can’t read them. Cool! I love microprinting.
wow! thats amazing… i feel smart now because i pointed that out to my mom.. she was amazed too!
Cool beans! all this time… i thought that it was a line, but actually, NO its not
very intresting
Well crap.. I had to look at my checks and by golly it’s true!
excellent info. thank you for sharing. now i have to look if i can read that fine prints.
Words or not..it’s still a line to sign on. Without a signature on those words that appear to be a line, the check is invalid. In essence, it ‘s a line of words..but still a line.
I hate personal checks.
They must’ve added a lot of security assurances after Frank Abagnale printed all those fake checks.
uh oh, my checks don’t have that feature. why?
@ Kenny and @Dr. Bill
My check reads Jennifer Axxxxx with the just first letter in capitals you guys have heard too many conspiracy theories.
Technology and the Internet has definitely secured itself in a position to keep people learning new things. Haven’t you noticed that we are more aware and knowledgeble about so much more than ever before. With the History, Discovery, Animal, and other channels who supply us daily with news, information and facts that have never been released, or observed before in such detail.
With regard to the check situation – I found myself in a position where I attempted to get a loan from my 403K plan and it was granted however; when it came to releasing the money, they wanted to force me to ‘order’ checks just so they could have ONE COPY which would have to be VOIDED in order to deposit the loan!!! I have not written checks in over 5 years or more. I was extremely upset that they would not accept MY BANK’S route number along with my account number!
Wow – I had no idea – and I used to work at a bank . .
wahahaha
Good job! It helped me out. Thank you!
Holy turd that’s amazing. I suppose there are still some small wonders left in the world.
Interesting. I bit of useless information that’s a keeper! I didn’t have a magnifying glass handy, but in looking very closely at that ‘line’, it was obvious that it wasn’t like other lines on the check. I could see the thickness and sort of blur that is the text.
Whoa, that’s so neat!
interesting never knew that.. going to try with one of my checks
tee hee. i just made a IOU that says thischeckislegit in tiny font on the signature line
This is totally amazing. I’m posting this as a FaceBook status! Lawl.
great. now i cant copy my fucking checks!
woah! thats actually really cool! now i know i can’t copy checks though… damn… haha but its a neat little piece of info… could come in handy!
Haha WOW that’s awesome, I never knew that! WOW I can’t believe it!
Jesse Blakely, haha WOW that’s even more awesome!
Oh, THAT’s why I got arrested -.-
Incredible! Thank you, really well researched.
Next, could we have the secrets of credit-scoring? By that, I don’t mean the version you get if you go onto a website that tells you you can check your credit rating here – those are worse than useless. What i’d like is to get information on the credit scoring systems the banks themselves use to rate your creditworthiness, and which they will never ever tell you about, claiming it to be some sort of secret – even though it impacts on your life.
I think this is really cool. I told my brother, and he didn’t believe me. =P
Also dos’nt the ink have some kind of magnetic properties built into it?
Bille Anita wonderful. Anita it !
;(
Woah!
So does that mean a check forger wouldn’t have a chance in court if they get caught? Because they didn’t look closely at the fine print!