Magnetic Stripe Card Coersivity

Magstripes come in two main varieties: high-coercivity (HiCo) at 4000 Oe and low-coercivity (LoCo) at 300 Oe but it is not infrequent to have intermediate values at 2750 Oe. High-coercivity magstripes are harder to erase, and therefore are appropriate for cards that are frequently used or that need to have a long life. Low-coercivity magstripes require a lower amount of magnetic energy to record, and hence the card writers are much cheaper than machines which are capable of recording high-coercivity magstripes. A card reader can read either type of magstripe, and a high-coercivity card writer may write both high and low-coercivity cards (most have two settings, but writing a LoCo card in HiCo may sometimes work), while a low-coercivity card writer may write only low-coercivity cards.
In practical terms, usually low coercivity magnetic stripes are a light brown color, and high coercivity stripes are nearly black; exceptions include a proprietary silver-colored formulation on transparent cards.


DISCLAIMER:

INFORMATION PROVIDED THROUGH THIS SITE IS PROVIDED TO YOU AS IS WITHOUT ANY EXPRESS REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, AND WE MAKE NO REPRESENTATION OR WARRANTY THAT THIS SITE(OR ANY INFORMATION PROVIDED IN RESPONSE TO YOUR INQUIRY), WILL BE ACCURATE, COMPLETE, OR ERROR-FREE.

YOU AGREE THAT YOU MUST EVALUATE ALL INFORMATION AND RESPONSES, AND THAT YOU BEAR ALL RISKS ASSOCIATED WITH, THE USE OF THIS SITE, INCLUDING ANY RELIANCE ON THE ACCURACY,COMPLETENESS, OR USEFULNESS OF ANY INFORMATION OR MATERIALS MADE AVAILABLE THROUGH THIS SITE.

Other users ask