Postage and mailing information applying system

A mail piece containing a plurality of machine readable lines thereon, said lines including encrypted information useful for authenticating said mail piece;

• said lines of said mail pieces comprise:
• at least one of said lines containing postage information, at least one of said lines containing recipient address information and at least one of said lines containing encryption information such that a relationship between said recipient address information and said encrypted information can be used to authenticate said mail piece.

In a method of applying postage and mailing information upon a mail piece such that said information may be used to authenticate said mail piece, said method comprising the steps of:

• applying upon said mail piece at least one line that contains postage information;
• applying upon said mail piece at least one line containing recipient address information in parallel with said at least one postage information line;
• applying upon said mail piece at least one line containing an encrypted message which is parallel to said postage information and recipient address information lines such that a relationship between said recipient address information and said encrypted information can be used to authenticate said mail piece.

A system for providing self authentication on a mail piece, comprising:

• encryption means operative to derive an encrypted message based upon address information,
• means for communicating recipient address information to said encryption means, and
• means for placing onto a mail piece an encrypted message derived from said address information by said encryption means such that a relationship between said recipient address information and said encrypted information can be used to authenticate said mail piece.

In a method of placing an encryption message useful for authenticating a mail piece upon said mail piece, said method comprising the steps of:

• communicating recipient address information to an encryptor,
• deriving an encryption message based upon said communicated recipient address information, and
• placing said encrypted message on said mail piece such that a relationship between said recipient address information and said encrypted information can be used to authenticate said mail piece.

A mail piece containing thereon postage information, recipient mailing address information and encryption information derived from said postage information and recipient mailing address information such that a relationship between said recipient address information and said encrypted information can be used to authenticate said mail piece.

A mail piece containing information thereon useful for authenticating said mail piece said information comprises:

• recipient mailing address information;
• and
• encryption information derived from said recipient mailing address information such that a relationship between said recipient address information and said encrypted information can be used to authenticate said mail piece.