In the mid-19th century an illiterate person signed their name by printing an "X" and having it witnessed.  I suppose we will be back to that soon and will again find that a personal signature IS needed to uniquely verify someone's agreement to the terms of a loan, a contract, a passport, a check, and so on.  For many, many years if someone could not sign their name they were considered illiterate and/or very poor (the 2 often went together in those days).  Relying on electronic means to "sign" your name on financial and legal documents can lead to difficulties.  If I am in the grocery store and the store does not take credit cards (some are starting to NOT accept credit cards due to cost and exposure issues), I am not going to try to find an electronic method to print out a check.  I am going to write the check there and sign it - my signature serving as approval to withdraw those funds from my account. 

Ginny Jones 
(Virginia A. Jones, CRM, FAI) 
Records Manager 
Information Technology Division 
Newport News Dept. of Public Utilities 
Newport News, VA 
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