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I worked at a title company and owned the escrow and documentation preparation software. At the time they used line printers to print on carbon copy forms. Eac
by technofiend 7y ago
I worked at a title company and owned the escrow and documentation preparation software. At the time they used line printers to print on carbon copy forms. Each page was differently colored so the "original" was always the white top copy. Getting a new copy of the paperwork was of course expensive and only the original was accepted for certain purposes.
We had a very interesting conversation with the doc prep department when I moved everything to using high speed laserjet printers. "Which one is the original, now?" The end result was someone buying a large rubber stamp that read "Original." :-)
- Spooky23 7y agoA friend worked had a government contractor as a client that had to use a specific, 8-9 part carbon form because the form was referenced in law and had to be used. Due to other issues, the law couldn’t be amended. At some point, it became difficult to get a printer and paper that would work with that many imprints!
- technofiend 7y agoThat's actually what drove the title company to switch to laser: the forms kept getting thicker and the bottom layer impression was too faint.
- jagged-chisel 7y agoI'd have repeated: "they're identical. doesn't matter. but I got a stamp to tell you which one." "they're identical. doesn't matter. but I got a stamp to tell you which one."
- rsclient 7y agoPut yourself in their shoes. What if one copy says the interest rate is 3.5%, and the other says 3.8%? You SAY they are the same, but are the really? If you have a strict policy of "one version is the 'original' and the rest are 'copies'", then wording of the 'original' gets legal priority. Legal priority == much lower legal bills. If you have a policy of "they are all the same", then when they are different, you have a nasty, expensive legal fight.
- technofiend 7y agoThe real issue to me then and now was how do you prove the original is the original? I pointed out then that frankly a good enough photocopy would also be indistinguishable despite a rubber stamp. I no longer remember but I guess the answer to that is red ink. This was prior to color photocopies being readily available. Or maybe they bought themselves a crimper and embossed a stamp.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- muzika 7y agoInk marks on the laler can be chemically analyzed, and I am sure forensics teams learned long ago how to identify a photo copy.
- rsclient 7y agoTake a look under a microscope. The difference between a rubber stamp whose ink bleeds into the paper and a Xerox which is kind of melted on the paper is enormous.