I think that was not done by embossing but by "3d printing" on the business card directly.

I don’t know what you mean. The technique of stamping the numbers on credit cards was literally called embossing.

Here is a video of a desktop scale embosser used for just that purpose: https://youtu.be/5ZQHSsFnACs?si=DWwgTScwl5HXkwGP

The part where the embossing daisy wheel is shown is at 18:10.

Here are machines used at an industrial scale: https://www.maticagroup.com/technologies/embossers/

They are nevertheless called “embossers”.

	▲	gerdesj 2 days ago \| parent [-]
		The embossed numbers were used to transfer the details quickly and reliably. A roller would apply pressure to press special paper onto upraised letters and numbers. The seller would hand write the amount and the buyer would sign. Two copies were made simultaneously (carbon impregnated paper) and separated and a copy kept by each party. Its a far cry from paying by bonk and your phone beeping a few seconds later to indicate your bank has already registered the transaction!

▲

cm2187 2 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

You mean business or credit card? Credit Cards I believe was embossing, you had the negative of the numbers on the back. They did that because before you had electronic card readers, merchant were taking credit card payments by making a carbon copy of the credit card number on the invoice: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Credit_card_imprinter

▲

richrichardsson 2 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I don't think I'm misremembering, but the back side of the card had recesses of the characters, so it was in fact embossed (in the UK at least).

▲

xx_ns 2 days ago | parent | prev [-]

I'm in Estonia, and my bank issues debit and credit cards that are definitely embossed.

▲

em-bee 2 days ago | parent [-]

unrelated, but that's almost surprising. austrian banks stopped issuing embossed cards years ago. is anyone in estonia still using that feature?

▲

xx_ns a day ago | parent [-]

Not that I know of. We're a pretty tech-forward country, so it's hard to imagine anyone making physical carbon copies these days.

	▲	em-bee a day ago \| parent [-]
		exactly, that's what i thought. must be one of those: it was always done that way, or maybe just, the banks bought machines to print the cards from the US or where they still do that (do they actually?) or simply those machines were cheaper, or who cares, its not like there is a downside to embossing the numbers. it could also be estonians who fled to the US in the previous century returning and bringing back their idea of how it should be done. i was visiting the baltics in the early 90s and i head that people were desperate to get anything from the west after being cut of for so long.