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Computer Vended Postage (CVP) & ATM (Automatenmarken) Stamps

"CVP" stamps are postage stamps or postage that you can print from a computer printer (as opposed to a traditional printing press). Generally this requires an account with an authorized postage provider, an internet connection and a printer.

Deutsche Post (the German Postal Service) has a product called "Internetmarke" (internet stamp) that allows you to print your own postage on demand for a variety of mailings and services.

In 2014, I created a 32-page exhibit about a temporary "make-up rate" internet stamp that Deutsche Post had temporarily available from January 1 to March 31, 2014. Since German postage laws do NOT allow internet stamps to be co-mingled with regular postage stamps on a letter or mailing, they created this make-up rate stamp to allow people to use up stamps printed in 2013.

A copy of this German Internet Stamp exhibit can be found here (this requires a PDF reader).

Deutsche Post has over 300 designs available for the Internet stamps.

Then there are "ATM" stamps. ATM is a term from German meaning "Automaten Marken" (meaning "vending machine stamps"); these stamps are printed on-demand from a kiosk, generally in a post office. Older versions of ATM stamps were manually purchased, by inserting a coin and then pushing a button or even turning a handle which would then dispense the stamp. Modern ATM stamps are generally printed via computer printer (mostly of the "thermal" variety (although a few older machines use a ribbon & dot matrix printer).

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Here in the USA, CVP (computer vended stamps) are generally printed at home via an account that the end-user has with a USPS authorized provider. Postage can be printed directly on a mail piece (such as an envelope) or printed on labels. Larger shipping labels are generally 4 x 6 inches in size, while "stamps" require pre-printed postage labels to purchased from the provider, and then additional information (known as the "indicia") is printed on the pre-printed labels, and only at that point, do the labels become active postage, ready to be used on mail or packages.

While CVP stamps have been counterfeited for many years, recently (2021 to 2022) there has been an increase in CVP being counterfeited / faked.

I have created a 16-page exhibit of these counterfeit CVP stamps and this exhibit will be shown for the first time on November 11-12, 2022 at the 35th annual stamp EXPO of the Mid-Cities Stamp Club (greater Dallas / Ft. Worth metroplex area). If you can't make it to the show, I am making this exhibit available via this website. You can download the "Counterfeit Computer Vended Postage Stamp exhibit" HERE (<-- click on this link and the PDF file will either display in your browser or allow you to download it).

--> Please note: my exhibit shows actual counterfeit CVP stamps that are in my collection. If you use images from the PDF file and attempt to use them as postage, you would be committing a USA federal felony according to US Code Title 18 chapter 25 section 501 to 504 and be subject fines & prison. Owning counterfeit CVP stamps by itself is NOT a felony, only the intent knowingly buying them with the "intent " on selling them and/or using them as postage to defraud the US Postal Service (note that this also applies to regular stamps issued by the US Postal Service)