Currency evaluation and recording system

A banking system for processing currency bills comprising:

• a plurality of currency handling devices for evaluating currency bills located in a plurality of bank branch locations;
• a plurality of local controllers, each of the plurality of local controllers associated with a bank branch location, each of the plurality of local controllers linked to at least one currency handling device located in the associated bank branch location, each of the local controllers adapted to communicate with each of the linked currency handling devices and to receive information associated with no call error signals from each of the linked currency handling devices, each of the local controllers being adapted to process the received information associated with no call error signals to derive an aggregate record of the number of no call error signals;
• a local controller memory associated with each of the plurality of local controllers, the local controller memory adapted to store the aggregate record of the number of no call error signals in a manner to permit subsequent recall;
• a central controller communicatively linked to each of the plurality of local controllers, the central controller associated with a central office of a banking operation, the central controller being adapted to process the aggregate records of the number of no call error signals derived by each of the plurality of local controllers to generate a further aggregate record of the number of no call error signals;
• and
• a central controller memory adapted to store the further aggregate record of the number of no call error signals in a manner to permit subsequent recall;
• wherein each of the currency handling devices comprises
• an input receptacle adapted to receive a stack of currency bills;
• an evaluation region adapted to retrieve denominating characteristic information from each of the bills;
• a transport mechanism adapted to transport the bills from the input receptacle, one at a time, past the evaluation region to at least one output receptacle;
• and
• a device processor adapted to denominate each of the currency bills by comparing the retrieved denominating characteristic information obtained from each of the bills to master denominating information, the device processor being adapted to generate a no call error signal when the retrieved denominating characteristic information does not favorably compare with the master denominating characteristic information.

A method for evaluating currency bills with a plurality of currency handling devices and recording information associated with the evaluation of the currency bills, each of the currency handling devices including a transport mechanism adapted to transport currency bills, one at a time, from an input receptacle past an evaluation region to at least one output receptacle, the evaluation region adapted to retrieve authenticating characteristic information from each of the bills, the currency handling devices including a device memory for storing master authenticating information and a device processor, the method comprising:

• retrieving authenticating characteristic information from each of the bills with one of the plurality of currency handling devices;
• comparing the retrieved authenticating characteristic information to stored master authenticating information;
• generating a suspect document error signal when the retrieved authenticating characteristic information does not favorably compare to stored master authenticating information;
• communicating information associated with the occurrence of each suspect document error signal to at least one system controller linked to the plurality of currency handling devices;
• generating a record of the number of suspect document error signals from the communicated information associated with the occurrence of each suspect document error signal;
• and
• recording the record of the number of suspect document error signals in a system memory in a manner to permit subsequent recall and review.

A method for evaluating currency bills with a plurality of currency handling devices and recording information associated with the evaluation of the currency bills, each of the currency handling devices including a transport mechanism adapted to transport currency bills, one at a time, from an input receptacle past an evaluation region to at least one output receptacle, the evaluation region adapted to retrieve authenticating characteristic information from each of the bills, the currency handling devices including a device memory for storing master denominating information and a device processor, the method comprising:

• retrieving denominating characteristic information from each of the bills with one of the plurality of currency handling devices;
• comparing the retrieved denominating characteristic information to stored master denominating information;
• generating a no call document error signal when the retrieved denominating characteristic information does not favorably compare to stored master denominating information;
• communicating information associated with the occurrence of each no call error signal to at least one system controller linked to the plurality of currency handling devices;
• generating a record of the number of no call error signals from the communicated information associated with the occurrence of each no call error signal;
• and
• recording the record of the number of no call error signals in a system memory in a manner to permit subsequent recall and review.

A banking system for processing currency bills and communicating information concerning the processed bills between a central office of a banking operation and a plurality of bank branch locations, the system comprising:

• a plurality of currency handling devices for evaluating currency bills located in a plurality of bank branch locations, each of the currency handling devices adapted to denominate currency bill and to generate a no call error signal when the denomination of a bill can not be determined, each of the currency handing devices adapted to authenticate currency bills and to generate a suspect document error signal when a bill is not authenticated;
• a plurality of local controllers, each of the plurality of local controllers associated with a bank branch location, each of the plurality of local controllers linked to at least one currency handling device located in the associated bank branch location, each of the local controllers adapted to communicate with each of the linked currency handling devices and to receive information associated with no call error signals and suspect document error signals from each of the linked currency handling devices, each of the local controllers being adapted to process the received information associated with no call error signals and suspect document error signals to derive an aggregate record of the number of no call error signals and suspect document error signals;
• a local controller memory associated with each of the plurality of local controllers, the local controller memory adapted to store the aggregate record of the number of no call error signals and suspect document error signals in a manner to permit subsequent recall;
• a central controller communicatively linked to each of the plurality of local controllers, the central controller associated with a central office of a banking operation, the central controller being adapted to process the aggregate records of the number of no call error signals and the number of suspect document error signals derived by each of the plurality of local controllers to generate a further aggregate record of the number of no call error signals and suspect document error signals;
• and
• a central controller memory adapted to store the further aggregate record of the number of no call error signals and suspect document error signals in a manner to permit subsequent recall.