Method and apparatus for automatically disabling a removable, portable vault of a postage metering system

摘要

A postage metering system (6) includes a portable postage meter vault (7); structure (5) for printing an indication of postage value; a postage meter terminal (3) including apparatus for receiving the portable postage meter vault (7), a device (9) for determining at times when the portable postage meter vault is inserted into the receiving means if the portable postage meter vault has been designated to be disabled from performing vault functions and a device (9) for automatically disabling the portable postage meter vault (7) from performing vault functions if the determination is made that the portable postage meter vault has been designated to be disabled from performing vault functions. A method for disabling a portable vault (7) of a postage metering system includes the steps of: (A) inserting the portable vault (7) into a terminal (6) of the postage metering system; (B) automatically determining via the terminal (6) if the portable vault (7) has been designated to be disabled from performing vault functions; and (C) at times when in step (B) it is determined that the portable vault (7) has been designated to be disabled from performing vault functions automatically disabling the inserted portable vault from performing vault functions. <IMAGE>