Patent ID: 6901388

Claim:
A system for printing postal indicia on mail pieces, comprising: a postal scale for determining a postage amount for a mail piece as a function of a weight for said mail piece; a printer; a postage meter responsive to said postal scale to control said printer to print said mail piece with an indicium representative of said postage amount, said postage meter including a secure mechanism for accounting for postage amounts expended and an indicia generator; means for responding to a first signal from said postal scale to debit said secure mechanism for a minimum postage amount and control said indicia generator to generate an indicium representative of said minimum amount; means for responding to a second signal representative of said determined postage amount to control said printer to print said indicium representative of said minimum postage amount on said mail piece if said determined postage amount equals said minimum amount; and means for responding to said second signal to debit said secure mechanism for said determined postage amount less said minimum postage amount, delete said indicium representative of said minimum postage amount, control said indicia generator to generate an indicium representative of said determined postage amount, and to control said printer to print said indicium representative of said determined postage amount on said mail piece if said determined postage amount is greater than said minimum postage amount.