Loose mail when received at a mail centre needs to go through a culling/facing process before its stamp is cancelled by the culler/facer/canceller.

However, mail, which has already been faced, can be expedited by missing this process and having its process time (and stamp cancelled if appropriate) in a later machine process.

In 1981, an alternative method was tried at the Melbourne Mail Centre. A Toshiba 81 CFC was modified so that an ink jet spray cancellation was used. The cancellation string could be programmed for various messages.

It was used for a few hours on live mail on the morning of October 7, 1981. Few examples are known to survive.

See also our story on the 1990 Inkjet Trials