velocipederider.com is one of the many independent Mastodon servers you can use to participate in the fediverse.
This is the personal server of Ruari (but Stu is here too).

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Velocipede Rider

The obvious advantage of stripping the numbers off the front (or entirety) of the card is for security/privacy. If they are seen† it is not possible for a nefarious person to memorise or quickly photograph the number.

Indeed I cannot think of any good reason for modern cards to continue to print the number across the front. If your bank does, maybe tell them to stop it.

† Just a few years back I could not have posted a picture like this on social media without compromising my account details.