Patent ID: 7693800

Claim:
A system for printing digital postal indicia on mail pieces, comprising: a) a postal scale for determining a postage amount for a mail piece as a function of a weight for said mail piece; b) a printer; c) a postage meter responsive to signals from said postal scale to control said printer to print on said mail piece a digital indicium representative of said postage amount, said postage meter comprising: c1) a programmable controller; c2) a secure mechanism for accounting for postage amounts expended; and c3) an indicia generator to generate digital indicia as proof of payment of postage for mail pieces; where d) said programmable controller is programmed to: d1) respond to a first signal from said postal scale to control said indicia generator to generate a digital indicium representative of a last used postage amount without debiting said secure mechanism for a postage amount corresponding to said digital indicium; then d2) if said determined postage amount equals said last used postage amount, respond to a second signal representative of said determined postage amount to debit said secure mechanism for the postage amount corresponding to said digital indicium and control said printer to print said digital indicium representative of said last used postage amount on said mail piece; otherwise d3) if said determined postage amount does not equal said last used postage amount, respond to said second signal to delete said digital indicium representative of said last used postage amount; control said indicia generator to generate a new digital indicium representative of said determined postage amount; debit said secure mechanism for a postage amount corresponding to said new digital indicium, and to control said printer to print said new digital indicium representative of said determined postage amount on said mail piece.