Loss of funds prevention for postage meters that use transfer printing and ink jet printing

摘要

This invention prevents the accounting unit of a postage meter from deducting funds when a mailpiece has been removed. The foregoing is achieved by giving the postage meter the intelligence to stop printing the postal indicia and deducting the value of the postal indicia just before the indicia is printed. This would eliminate the loss of funds due to problems between trip command and actual indicia printing. The apparatus of this invention utilizes a sensor to detect the presence of a mailpiece at a printing position and a detector to determine the location of the indicia printing plate or the time that an ink jet printer is going to print so that the system will be able to prevent the printing of a postal indicia and deducting the value of the postal indicia just before the indicia is printed.