Low Coercivity
Magstripes come in two main varieties: high-coercivity (Hi-Co) at 4000 Oersted and low-coercivity (Lo-Co) at 300 Oersted but it is not infrequent to have intermediate values at 2750 Oe.In practical terms, usually low coercivity magnetic stripes are a light brown color. Low coercivity stripes are easily damaged by even a brief contact with a magnetic purse strap or fastener. Because of this, virtually all bank cards today are encoded on high coercivity stripes despite a slightly higher per-unit cost. Magnetic stripe cards are used in very high volumes in the mass transit sector, replacing paper based tickets with either a directly applied magnetic slurry or hot foil stripe. Slurry applied stripes are generally less expensive to produce and are less resilient but are suitable for cards meant to be disposed after a few uses.
Also known as:lo-co, lo co, low-coercivity, low coercivity, loco
