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US 4,901,241 AGranted
Debit card postage meter
AssigneeDrexler Technology Corporation
InventorThomas Schneck
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A postage meter dispensing postage labels corresponding to the consumption of value sites on a debit card. A debit card is inserted into the meter where a card reader/writer cooperates with a label printer. The same optical signal which is used to decrement a value on the card is also used to actuate label printing.
Claims7
A postage value system for a postage meter comprising,
- an optical, direct read-after-write debit card having card position indicia and a postage value area,
- an optical card reader-writer means for receiving said debit card in a read and write relation,
- a postage meter having manual postage input means for commanding and registering a desired postage value, printing means communicating with the input means for printing on a postal label in response to registrations of postal values from the input means and in response to a signal received from the reader-writer means, said reader-writer means communicating with the postage input means and the printing means, said signal causing decrementation of said desired postal value from the debit card and actuating the printing of said postal value on said postage label, said reader-writer means establishing on said card a permanent record of postage label printing.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.