Abstract: A credit card reader is described which includes two magnetic readout heads whose gaps are spaced from each other a distance equal to one half the distance between adjacent, uniformly spaced bits of binary coded information. The coded data is recorded on a linear length of the credit card. The two similar sets of signals are extracted, one delayed relative to the other, as the heads scan the data. Decoding circuitry is described which provides information corresponding to the recorded data independently of the relative speed at which the credit card is moved or is swept past the readout heads.