Electronic franking machine including franking limit values

Claim 1

A franking machine comprising a keyboard, a display, a calendar clock, a microprocessor, a program memory, a text memory, and a working memory connected to a bus, a first set of messages for normal franking operations and a second set of messages for special operations being stored in the text memory, the program memory containing programs relating to each message in the first and second sets of messages, the second set of messages being accessible from a Menu key on the keyboard, depressing said Menu key causing a beginning-of-menu first message to appear, said first message comprising options each identified by a different digit corresponding to a different digit key on the keyboard, wherein: said beginning-of-menu first message includes an option for fixing a franking limit value in order to prevent any franking operation at a higher value, said operation being identified by a digit; the second set of messages includes a change of limit value message which appears after selecting the option for fixing the limit value, in order to receive a limit value from the keyboard; and the first set of messages includes a "franking limit exceeded" message which appears whenever a franking value is confirmed which is greater than the limit value contained in the working memory, said franking limit exceeded message prohibiting franking.