All About Numbering Machines

Numbering Made Easy (I know you thought it already was easy)

There are a number of different styles of numbering machines. Most though are

Handheld and resemble the old pricing print stamps used years ago at grocery stores. Some though are electronically activated and mounted to machines; they do everything from document printing to milk carton sealing. An important step though in choosing a machine is understanding your numbering requirements. Whether you are purchasing an automatic numbering machine, an Auto Pro or Bates numbering machine; the following are four different schemes used by these machines that offer different features that can be essential.

Consecutive Numbering

Consecutive numbering is just as it sounds, like pages in a book.

It offers a simple way to make each document unique, like money or a check number.

Letters can be used so that a smaller amount of characters can be used. Remember the alphabet has 26 distinct characters as opposed to ten.

MICR (Magnetic Image Character Recognition)

These are the funky numbers at the bottom of a check

It uses magnetic ink so a scanner as well as people can read it.

The number on the bottom of a check consists of three distinct multi-character sets.

The first is always nine digits and is called an ABA or routing number. This refers to the financial institution and the geographic area where the institution is located for clearing purposes.

The second number is the actual bank account number

The third is the consecutive number of the individual check itself

Bar codes work similar to MICR in that they offer both human and machine-readable information.

Bar codes are ubiquitous in their use, they are used to track everything from groceries to packages 

MOD Numbering

Mod (modulus) numbering can become overly complicated in explaining what is really a very simple concept. An additional digit is added to a consecutive number to add a layer of accuracy and security to a numbering system. Why do this? For one very simple reason, which too often is explained in overly technical terms, that only a mathematician or an engineer can understand. If we were to have sequentially numbered Social Security, Bank Account or Credit Card numbers it would be much more simple to fabricate these numbers for some nefarious purpose. So a consecutive number has what is called a check sum on the end. The simplest form goes like this, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005. If we were to add a checksum on the end it might go like this, 20016, 20027, 20038, 20049, 20050. The 6 through 0 are added to the end of the number to demonstrate how the system works. Often times the progress from number to number would involve a scheme where a mathematic formula would be used to make the checksums relationship from number to number more obscure.