Abstract: An article is disclosed for displaying a machine readable character having a predetermined location for receiving a manually marked character and an indicia which is not machine readable formed at the predetermined location. The indicia is formed in a guide pattern capable of being selectively traced manually with a machine recognizable marking material in a plurality of differing traced conformations over respectively differing portions of the guide pattern for selectively producing a corresponding plurality of differing machine readable characters. The guide pattern of the indicia may be arranged for selective formation of the traced conformations in the form of differing numerals or letters.