Fixed head magnetic stripe reader-encoder

A magnetic transducer assembly having no moving parts for detecting and reading information stored on a magnetic stripe on the back of a card. The assembly has a base member with electrical connectors, a card guide member with an S-shaped channel therein to guide a card through the assembly, and a magnetic detection head fixed in a cavity provided in the card guide member on an upper side of the S-shaped channel and at a junction of the convex entry passageway and the concave exit passageway of the S-shaped channel. The fixed magnetic head has a convex face protruding from the cavity and into the S-shaped channel at the junction so that the magnetic stripe on the back of a card inserted through the S-shaped channel frictionally engages the magnetic head so that the magnetic head may read information encoded on the magnetic stripe. The fixed magnetic head is preferably rotated away from the direction which the card travels through the s-shaped channel. Additionally, the S-shaped channel is preferably sufficiently deep so that the card is firmly held within the channel as it travels through the card guide member.