As described above, the front or rear surfaces of the transaction card may be printed or laser-etched to provide indicia, such as graphics, images, text, or any other indicia. [0047]FIG. 2C illustrates an alternate embodiment of the present invention of a cross-sectional view of a transaction card taken along line II-II of FIG. 1B. In the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 2C, the transaction card 1 c