A banknote processing method, comprising:
- loading a first and a second banknote group on a loading portion in a state in which the first and second banknote groups are piled up against each other, and a first separator card is positioned at either a leading end or a trailing end of the first banknote pile group along a piling horizontal direction, and a second separator card is positioned at either a leading end or a trailing end of the second banknote pile group along the piling horizontal direction, respectively;
- taking in, by a take-in portion, the first separator card, the first banknote pile group, the second separator card, and the second banknote pile group in order from either the leading end or the trailing end of the pile of the sheets and cards along the piling horizontal direction;
- conveying, by a conveyor, the first separator card, the first banknote pile group, the second separator card, and the second banknote pile group that have been taken in;
- processing, by a processor, to individually count the banknotes in the first and second banknote pile groups and to generate counting data, by distinguishing between types of banknotes, and by discriminating as to whether any of the banknotes should be rejected;
- reading, by a reader, card discrimination information of the conveyed first and second separator cards;
- accumulating, in a reject area, the first and second separator cards read by the reader and the banknotes discriminated to be rejected by the processor;
- receiving, in a database, the card discrimination information of the first and second separator cards from the reader and storing the received card discrimination information in association with counting data of an associated one of the banknote pile groups;
- calculating counting value data of the first and second banknote groups respectively counted by the processor;
- and
- bundling, by a bundling portion, the banknotes conveyed by the conveyor, the bundling portion including at least a first stacker and a second stacker for sorting and stacking the banknotes conveyed by the conveyor and distinguished by the processor based on banknote type,
- wherein the first stacker and the second stacker of the bundling portion are configured to alternately receive a predetermined number of banknotes, and when the banknotes stacked in the first stacker has reached the predetermined number, the first stacker banknotes are conveyed to the bundling portion and bundled, while at that time the second stacker starts to receive subsequent banknotes conveyed by the conveyor, and
- wherein, to count the rejected banknotes, the rejected banknotes are further processed by:
- reloading, onto the loading portion, the rejected banknotes and the first separator card, or the second separator card, or the first and second separator cards that correspond to the accumulated rejected banknotes,
- taking in the rejected banknotes and the corresponding separator card(s) by the take-in portion,
- rereading, by the reader, the card discriminating information of the corresponding separator card(s) taken in by the take-in means,
- individually recounting the rejected banknotes taken in by the take-in portion to generate counting addition data, and
- adding the counting addition data to the previous counting data of the non-rejected banknotes using the card discrimination information as a key to update the counting data.