Neopost web-enabled stamps or Neopostage is a
postage stamp
A postage stamp is a small piece of paper issued by a post office, postal administration, or other authorized vendors to customers who pay postage (the cost involved in moving, insuring, or registering mail). Then the stamp is affixed to the f ...
that is part of the family of
computerized postage. These stamps were developed by
Neopost Online and
Northrop Grumman
Northrop Grumman Corporation is an American multinational Aerospace manufacturer, aerospace and Arms industry, defense company. With 97,000 employees and an annual revenue in excess of $40 billion, it is one of the world's largest Arms industry ...
Corporation. The joint effort resulted in an innovative self-service stamp vending system. Neopost Online is a US subsidiary of Neopost Inc. Testing of this system was authorized by the United States Postal Service (USPS) in March 2001.
The self-service stamp vending system allowed consumers to:
# Touch a display screen to activate the kiosk.
# Peruse through a variety of stamp
denominations and quantities for purchase.
# Select the desired purchase.
# Swipe credit card information to submit the purchase order.
The kiosk then:
# Logs on the centrally located database to get credit card authorization.
# Awaits approval of purchase from a centrally located database.
# Receives purchasing authorization information from the centrally located database..
# Prints the purchasing and stamp information onto adhesive paper (from roll or individual sheets).
# Dispenses the stamp sheets to the consumer.
The ability to peruse, request, authorize, print, and dispense a stamp purchase using the Internet made these the world's first browser-based stamps.
The Neopost web-enabled stamps are listed in
Scott catalogue (Specialized Version) under ''Computer Vended Postage'' section with several unlisted varieties.
References
{{reflist
Postage stamps
Postal systems