A hand-operated document processor includes a base for receiving a document containing magnetic ink character data to be read and recognized. A manually operated moving magnetic ink character recognition (MICR) subsystem includes a MICR read head and is attached to the base such that movement of the subsystem causes the MICR read head to pass over the magnetic ink character data on the document. MICR reading and recognition logic receives the signal from the MICR read head. A speed limiting device includes a viscous damper, and is connected to the MICR subsystem. The viscous damper provides a resistance load when the MICR subsystem is moved across the document being processed. The resistance load increases as the operator increases the speed of the MICR subsystem to encourage the operator to maintain a constant scanning rate over the length of the document.