US Postal Service patents anti-fake tech for stamps

Counterfeiting of postage stamps remains a problem worldwide, and the US Postal Service has been working on ways to protect them with authentication technologies.

It has just been awarded a US patent – No. 10,535,211 – that covers an approach based on the application of an adhesive incorporating taggants that can emit luminescence in response to a signal, such as a particular light or electromagnetic energy source. It also covers the use of the taggants within the substrate of the stamp, such as paper, or the ink used to print it.

The USPS and US Postal Inspection Service (USPS) don’t publish any data on just how big a problem stamp fraud is in the US – or even provide an obvious way to report it – but the patent suggests it isn’t an insignificant problem.

The abstract of the patent appears below:

Method and system for item authentication and customization

Abstract: A method of illuminating an item is disclosed. The method includes applying adhesive to the item, interspersing a taggant in the adhesive, illuminating the item with an excitation signal, sensing luminescence emitted by the taggant in response to illumination by the excitation signal, and determining the authenticity of the item based on the sensed emitted luminescence. The item can include any item benefited by authentication, and can include a postage stamp. A method of customizing an item is disclosed. This can include the steps of preparing a substrate, applying a security feature to the substrate, printing non-customized information on the substrate, receiving image information, and printing the image information on the substrate.

Patent No. 10,535,211