Checks cleared through any Federal Reserve Bank after September 1, 1967 must have the routing symbol-transit number of the bank on which it is drawn imprinted with E-1SB characters in magnetic ink. This is MICR (Magnetic Ink Character Recognition) encoding. This routing number is that set of odd-looking numbers printed along the lower edge on the left side of the check. If a check does not meet this requirement after September 1, 1967, it will no longer be handled by the Federal Reserve Bank as a check. Such checks will suffer delays in collection and could result in collection charges.