Bill recognizing and counting apparatus

A bill recognizing and counting apparatus comprising:

• a rejecting unit for rejected bills;
• a transport-path switching unit configured to switch a route of a given bill from a main transport path to a branched transport path toward the rejecting unit;
• a detecting unit configured to detect a skew of the given bill;
• an operation unit configured to receive a setting of a given bill processing mode from a plurality of bill processing modes, wherein the plurality of bill processing modes includes a denomination mode in which a denomination of the given bill is recognized, and a counting mode in which a number of the given bill is counted without recognizing the denomination of the given bill;
• a recognizing unit configured to perform, according to the given bill processing mode, at least one of a denomination recognition process and a counting process;
• and
• a control unit configured to drive the transport-path switching unit to guide the given bill to the rejecting unit through the branched transport path when the given bill is in a skewed state exceeding a predetermined criterion as detected by the detecting unit in the denomination mode;
• wherein a first criterion set as the predetermined criterion in the denomination mode is different from a second criterion set as the predetermined criterion in the counting mode,
• wherein the second criterion in the counting mode is set to be more lenient than the first criterion in the denomination mode such that a reject rate in the counting mode becomes lower than a reject rate in the denomination mode.

A method for processing bills using a bill recognizing and counting apparatus having a stacker for normal bills and a rejecting unit for rejected bills, comprising:

• selecting one of a denomination mode in which a denomination of a bill is recognized and a counting mode in which a number of the bill is counted without recognizing the denomination of the given bill, as a processing mode of the bill recognizing and counting apparatus;
• transporting a given bill received in the bill recognizing and counting apparatus along a transport path of the bill recognizing and counting apparatus;
• detecting a skew of the given bill via a detecting unit provided on the transport path;
• performing at least one of denomination recognition process and a counting process by a recognizing unit;
• stacking, when either the counting mode or the denomination mode is selected, the given bill into the stacker when a skewed state of the given bill does not exceed a first predetermined criterion for the denomination mode or a second predetermined criterion for the counting mode;
• stacking the given bill into the stacker, when the counting mode is selected, when the skewed state of the given bill exceeds the second predetermined criterion;
• and
• stacking the given bill into the rejecting unit, when the denomination mode is selected, when the skewed state of the given bill exceeds the first predetermined criterion,
• wherein the first predetermined criterion is a function of an ability of the recognizing unit to recognize the denomination of the given bill in the denomination mode.