the rotary blade 2 in its operating position the mail piece 15 is fed by the postage meter under the rotating blade 2 and enters a nip between rotating feed roller 4 b and idler roller 4 a the feed rollers 4 a and 4 b then draw the mail piece 15 past the blade 2 and the opened mail piece 15 is ejected the mail piece is guided by mail guide 16 to provide a straight cut adjacent to the edge 18 of the mail piece to avoid damage to the contents while the rotary cutter is in its operating position as shown in fig5 the print head carrier 12 is in its service station position behind the mail guide 16 the dotted line indicates the position of the print head carrier when the print head is in the operative printing position when the rotary cutter 2 is in the retracted position the rotary cutter is disposed to lie behind the surface of the mail guide 16 that is engaged by the mail pieces so that the rotary cutter cannot engage and damage the outgoing franked mail pieces it is to be understood that the foregoing represents just one embodiment of the invention others of which will no doubt appear to the skilled reader without deviation from the true scope of the invention as claimed in the appended claims in one embodiment as illustrated in.