This invention relates to perforated return mailers that incorporate machine readable data.
Perforated information mailers are known. Computer forms that might enclose additional forms and carbons, or forms adapted to act like carbons, are sealed about their periphery to define a mailing envelope. Perforations are provided to facilitate the opening and subsequent removal of only the form of interest from the envelope. The envelope itself is of no interest and is discarded.
Return mailers are also known, for example in the form of parking tickets. In the past, an errant motorist receiving a parking ticket was required to mail a payment using his own envelope. Compliance improved when the parking ticket was actually printed on one panel of a weather-resistant return envelope or mailer. The recipient of the ticket inserted a check and placed the envelope in the mail. Upon receiving the mailer, the processor removed the enclosed payment and separated the two panels of the mailer, retaining the panel with the ticket printed on it. If the panel included machine readable information such as the ticket number, it would then be scanned by an optical reader, and the motorist's debt would be cleared. One difficulty with this system arises when the two panels are separated, and the panels rip or gnarl, causing the reader to jam or read only a portion of the panel.