Patent ID: 7377425

Claim:
A method comprising: a) moving a check across at least one magnetic sensor; b) acquiring magnetic signals from the at least one magnetic sensor as the check moves across the at least one magnetic sensor; c) through operation of at least one processor in an automated banking machine, determining the portions of the magnetic signals which correspond to a plurality of Magnetic Ink Character Recognition (MICR) symbols, wherein each portion of the magnetic signals that corresponds to a MICR symbol includes a MICR symbol waveform; d) through operation of the at least one processor, for each MICR symbol waveform, identifying minimum and maximum peaks in the MICR symbol waveform and determining a set of amplitude values representative of the amplitudes of the identified peaks; e) through operation of the at least one processor, for each MICR symbol waveform, comparing the set of amplitude values determined in (d) for the respective MICR symbol waveform to each one of a plurality of predetermined sets of amplitude values for MICR symbols of at least one MICR font; f) through operation of the at least one processor, for each MICR symbol waveform, determining which MICR symbol of the at least one MICR font corresponds to the respective MICR symbol waveform responsive to (e); g) through operation of the at least one processor, determining at least one number from the MCR symbols determined in (f); and h) through operation of the at least one processor, sending at least one message to a remote computer, wherein the at least one message includes data representative of the at least one number determined in (g).