An article for use as a negotiable instrument includes a substrate having a front side and reverse side; first machine-printed information on the substrate's front side including an account number associated with the negotiable instrument, and a unique identifier associated with the negotiable instrument, the first machine-printed information uniquely identifying the negotiable instrument; and second machine-printed information on the substrate's reverse side that corresponds to the first machine-printed information such that comparison of respective images of the substrate's front and reverse sides indicates that the images correspond to the same negotiable instrument.