United States Driver's Licenses
The data stored on magnetic stripes on American driver's licenses is specified by the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators. Not all states use a magnetic stripe on their driver's licenses. For a list of those that do, see the AAMVA list of US License Technology. The AAMVA site also contains a list of the Canadian jurisdictions that use magnetic stripes on their driver's licenses.
The following data is stored on track 1:
- Start Sentinel - one character (generally '%')
- State or Province - two characters
- City - variable length (seems to max out at 13 characters)
- Field Separator - one character (generally '^') (absent if city reaches max length)
- Last Name - variable length
- Field Separator - one character (generally '$')
- First Name - variable length
- Field Separator - one character (generally '$')
- Middle Name - variable length
- Field Separator - one character (generally '^')
- Home Address (house number and street) - variable length
- Field Separator - one character (generally '^')
- Unknown - variable length
- End Sentinel - one character (generally '?')
The following data is stored on track 2:
- ISO Issuer Identifier Number (IIN) - 6 digits
- Drivers License / Identification Number - 13 digits
- Field Separator — generally '='
- Expiration Date (YYMM) - 4 digits
- Birth date (YYYYMMDD) - 8 digits
- DL/ID# overflow- 5 digits (If no information is used then a field separator is used in this field.)
- End Sentinel - one character ('?')
The following data is stored on track 3:
- Template V#
- Security V#
- Postal Code
- Class
- Restrictions
- Endorsements
- Sex
- Height
- Weight
- Hair Color
- Eye Color
- ID#
- Reserved Space
- Error Correction
- Security
Note: Each state has a different selection of information they encode, not all states are the same. Note: Some states, such as Texas, have laws restricting drivers licenses being swiped under certain circumstances.
Read more about this topic: Magnetic Stripe Card
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