The present invention provides apparatus, systems and methods for the
computerized generation and printing of a U.S. Postal Service Shipping
Label over the Internet that provides postage, shipping address, delivery
address, and shipment and delivery tracking indicia. According to the
invention, human-readable postage payment indicia is formatted in such a
way that the actual price of shipping postage is obscured; postage
payment can only be translated from the postage payment indicia by
someone who knows the format template. The present invention further
provides a United States Postal Service shipping label comprising a
representation of paid postage, said representation of paid postage
comprising a human-readable character string, said character string
comprising imbedded postage price information. The present invention
further provides a United States Postal Service shipping label,
comprising a machine-readable representation of paid postage and a ship
to address.