Originally Posted by
GiaSophia
I am fairly new to fountain pens and wanted to get thoughts on what type of inks should be used for writing checks. I know most people probably pay their bills online, but do you need to use iron gall or waterproof inks on checks? Any recommendations?
First off, criminal alternation of personal checks is not a problem on any meaningful scale. The probability of it happening to you is so fantastically low that you are many, many times more likely to be killed accidentally on the way to mailing your payment than you are of having your check altered. "Check washing" as it existed, referred to the process of criminals altering or bleaching and re-printing state issued benefits checks. Optimally, criminals would intercept bundles of mail containing hundreds of benefit checks (unemployment, pension, disability, etc) which were linked to huge (multi-million dollar) bank accounts, alter the amounts and payee and then cash them quickly in batches before the deception could be discovered. Personal checks just are not worth the trouble, since they get mailed singly (instead of hundreds or thousands at a time), are linked to your checking account (with a limit of hundreds or thousands of dollars, instead of multiple millions) and you are very likely to rapidly discover any irregularities.
That said, if you need to send in a check and you believe people out there are going to intercept and alter it; then you really should use two separate inks:
1.)
A strong link for the payee and amount. The ink used here should stand up to bleaching attempts, making it challenging to alter who gets your money and how much they get.
2.)
A weak link for your signature. This ink should run, fade and wash away upon the slightest disturbance. During the bleaching process, criminals try to protect the signature line with various materials. Make this harder for them by using the most ephemeral ink you can find.
Most of the suggestions so far in this thread meet the criteria for a strong link, but they are inappropriate for your signature if you are looking to enhance security. Your signature would be best in something like a washable blue or another transient ink.
HTH!
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