The term zone punch relates to the use of punch cards, which was a means of recording data in a storable form prior to the advent of keying or scanning data into a computer's database. The pattern of punch card coding derived from a system proposed by Herman Hollerith in 1890. With punch cards, the pattern of punched-out holes denoted numbers or letters. The holes could act as areas where an electrical circuit could be completed. The electrical pattern could be further used to record and transfer the information contained on a punch card into the computers of the time.

A aspect of the punch card technology was termed a zone punch. A zone punch was a hole punched in one of the upper three rows of a twelve-row punch card. A zone punch could also be done in the eighth or ninth rows in EBCDIC (Extended...