Check reader

An apparatus for determining at least one of either a magnetically readable indicia and an optically imageable indicia on a document, said apparatus comprising:

• a housing having a feed path;
• transport means mounted in said housing for transporting documents partially along said feed path, said transport means being positioned in said housing so that a portion of said feed path extends forward of said transport means;
• a magnetic ink character reader mounted to said housing proximate said feed path for generating a first type of electrical signal when an indicia printed with magnetic ink and said reader are moved relative to one another;
• an imaging assembly mounted to said housing proximate said feed path for generating a second type of electrical signal when an indicia and said imaging assembly are moved relative one another, wherein said imaging assembly is mounted in relation to said transport means so that said imaging assembly is adapted to generate said second type of electrical signal when a document is manually moved relative to said imaging assembly while being loaded into said feed path before being transported by said transport means;
• and
• a control means in communication with said imaging assembly and with said magnetic ink character reader adapted to capture images corresponding to said second type of electrical signal.