Identifying duplicate printed paper cash letters

• US 20090114715A1
• Filed: 11/06/2007
• Published: 05/07/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 11/06/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago (Federal Reserve System)
• Original Assignee: Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago (Federal Reserve System), Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City (Federal Reserve System)
• Inventors: Treptow, David, Rodrigues, Richard, Mueller, Randall Lee
• Granted Patent: US 8,573,498 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 235/379
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/04 Payment circuits
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/042 characterized in that the payment protocol involves at least one cheque

Abstract

A printed cash letter includes a machine-readable identifier, such as a barcode, identifying the cash letter. Upon printing, information from the identifier is read and stored in a first record. To determine whether the cash letter is a duplicate, a check presentment module compares information from the identifier with information in the first record. If information identifying the cash letter already exists in the first record, the cash letter is a duplicate. To verify cash letter printing, information identifying multiple cash letters to be printed is stored in a second record. Upon printing a portion of the cash letters, information read from identifiers on the printed cash letters is compared with information in the second record. If the second record includes information regarding a cash letter not identified in the information scanned from the barcodes, then the check presentment module identifies the cash letter as having not been printed.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for identifying duplicate printed cash letters, comprising the steps of:

reading information in a printed machine-readable identifier comprising information identifying a cash letter associated with the printed machine-readable identifier;

determining whether the cash letter was printed twice by comparing the read information with information stored in a record; and

outputting an alert to advise an operator that the cash letter was printed twice in response to determining that the cash letter was printed twice.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the printed machine-readable identifier comprises a barcode.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the information in the printed machine-readable identifier comprises information uniquely identifying the cash letter.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the information uniquely identifying the cash letter comprises at least one of a total value of items in the cash letter, an ABA number of a bank that will receive a printed copy of the cash letter, a total number of item bundles in the cash letter, and a total number of items in the cash letter.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of determining whether the cash letter was printed twice comprises the step of determining whether the record comprises information uniquely identifying the cash letter.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of storing the read information in the record in response to determining that the cash letter was not printed twice.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the alert uniquely identifies the cash letter.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of generating a print stream for the cash letter, the print stream comprising information to be included in the printed machine-readable identifier.

9. A computer-readable medium comprising computer-executable instructions for performing the method of claim 1.

10. A computer-implemented method for identifying duplicate printed cash letters, comprising the steps of:

reading information in a printed machine-readable identifier comprising information identifying a cash letter associated with the printed machine-readable identifier;

determining whether the cash letter was printed twice by comparing the read information with information stored in a record; and

storing the read information in the record in response to determining that the cash letter was not printed twice.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the printed machine-readable identifier comprises a barcode.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the information in the printed machine-readable identifier comprises information uniquely identifying the cash letter.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the information uniquely identifying the cash letter comprises at least one of a total value of items in the cash letter, an ABA number of a bank that will receive a printed copy of the cash letter, a total number of item bundles in the cash letter, and a total number of items in the cash letter.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein the step of determining whether the cash letter was printed twice comprises the step of determining whether the record comprises information uniquely identifying the cash letter.

15. The method of claim 10, further comprising the step of outputting an alert to advise an operator that the cash letter was printed twice in response to determining that the cash letter was printed twice.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the alert uniquely identifies the cash letter.

17. The method of claim 10, further comprising the step of generating a print stream for the cash letter, the print stream comprising information to be included in the printed machine-readable identifier.

18. A computer-readable medium comprising computer-executable instructions for performing the method of claim 10.

19. A computer-implemented method for identifying duplicate printed cash letters, comprising the steps of:

generating a print stream for a cash letter, the print stream comprising information to be included in a printed machine-readable identifier comprising information identifying the cash letter;

reading information in the printed machine-readable identifier;

determining whether the cash letter was printed twice by comparing the read information with information stored in a record;

storing the read information in the record in response to determining that the cash letter was not printed twice; and

outputting an alert to advise an operator that the cash letter was printed twice in response to determining that the cash letter was printed twice.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the printed machine-readable identifier comprises a barcode.

21. The method of claim 19, wherein the information in the printed machine-readable identifier comprises information uniquely identifying the cash letter, the information uniquely identifying the cash letter comprising at least one of a total value of items in the cash letter, an ABA number of a bank that will receive a printed copy of the cash letter, a total number of item bundles in the cash letter, and a total number of items in the cash letter.

22. The method of claim 19, wherein the step of determining whether the cash letter was printed twice comprises the step of determining whether the record comprises information uniquely identifying the cash letter.

23. The method of claim 19, wherein the alert uniquely identifies the cash letter.

24. A computer-readable medium comprising computer-executable instructions for performing the method of claim 19.