Automatic banking machine with sealed tamper-indicating container for receiving and storing diverted paper money bills

A remote automatic banking or teller machine equipped with doubles detecting mechanism which diverts doubles from delivery to a customer and conveys the doubles to a container into which the conveyor means discharges the doubles through a container opening having closure means which are in open position when mounted on the dispenser unit in access-preventing or anti-fishing condition and which closure means are closed and locked to provide a sealed tamper-indicating anti-fishing condition for the container after the container is removed from the dispenser unit and during transport to a central bank.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED PATENTS 
The particular container and transport constructions and relationships 
comprise improvements on the construction shown in U.S. Pat. No. 
4,154,437, dated May 15, 1979. 
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
1. Field of the Invention 
The invention relates to automatic banking or teller machines (ATM's) and 
particularly to cash or paper money dispenser mechanisms for remotely 
located ATM's. More particularly, the invention relates to the 
construction and operation of a sealed tamper-indicating container and its 
coordinated relationship with transport mechanism which discharges bills 
into the container that have been diverted, among other reasons, for 
example, from delivery to a customer as a result of the detection of 
"doubles", such diverted bills being discharged from transport means, and 
received and stored in the container which is sealed in a 
tamper-indicating condition before it can be removed from the ATM. 
It is desirable to control access to diverted bills by personnel servicing 
ATM's who may attempt to fish bills from the container while the container 
is locked to the unit, so as to eliminate the necessity of providing 
multiple personnel when servicing an ATM or while replenishing the supply 
of paper money bills with which the ATM is loaded, or while removing a 
rejected paper money bill container, and also to maintain the same high 
degree of protection for the removed diverted bills that is provided for 
the loaded bills. 
2. Description of the Prior Art 
Many types and kinds of ATM's are known in the banking field designed for 
installation and operation remote from a main banking headquarters. Such 
ATM's invariably are provided with devices which detect the presence of 
doubles being transported from the paper money supply to the cash delivery 
station of the ATM, and which divert such detected doubles and then 
transport the same to a collection zone within the ATM. 
U.S. Pat. No. 4,154,437 shows a container which receives and stores 
diverted bills delivered by a transport mechanism to the container. The 
container thereof is locked before removal from the transport device to 
attempt to protect the paper money bills contained therein during 
transport to the main banking headquarters. 
However, the construction and arrangement of transport conveyor and 
container in U.S. Pat. No. 4,154,437 does not provide sealed 
tamper-indicating conditions against fishing by servicing personnel while 
locked to the unit or while being transported to the main bank, because 
the diverted bills deposited in the container may be tampered with or 
fished from the container while unlocked and mounted on the unit, or after 
the container is locked and separated from its mounting on the unit. Thus 
the same degree of protection is not provided for the diverted bill 
container of U.S. Pat. No. 4,154,437 that is provided by the sealed 
tamper-indicating money dispensing container of the type shown in U.S. 
Pat. No. 4,113,140, with which the currency dispenser of U.S. Pat. No. 
4,154,437 may be equipped. 
Accordingly, there is a need existing in the art for a construction and 
arrangement which provide maximum security or at least the same degree of 
security in handling diverted paper money bills in their containers that 
is provided by a sealed tamper-indicating container construction and 
arrangement charged with a supply of paper money for loading the ATM. 
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
Objectives of the invention include providing a sealed container 
construction for removable assembly with a cash dispenser unit of an ATM 
adapted to receive and store paper money bills, diverted by a doubles 
detector mechanism during operation of a cash dispenser, delivered by 
conveyor means extending between the point of diversion and the diverted 
bill container; providing such sealed tamper-indicating container and 
arrangement which includes mechanism preventing removal of the container 
from the cash dispenser unit without the container being locked in sealed 
tamper-indicating condition; providing such sealed tamper-indicating 
container construction and arrangement which prevents access to paper 
money bills diverted during cash dispenser operation during and after 
delivery to an opening in the container having closure means which must be 
closed and locked before removal of the container from the cash dispenser 
unit; providing such sealed tamper-indicating construction which protects 
the diverted bills from being fished from the container while mounted on 
the unit or during transport to a main bank headquarters; and providing 
such sealed tamper-indicating container construction and arrangement which 
achieves the stated objectives in a most efficient and highly secure 
manner, which is simple in construction and operation, and which satisfies 
needs existing in the field of automatic remote cash dispensing banking 
services. 
Such objectives are obtained by the sealed tamper-indicating container 
construction, arrangement and operation generally stated as including in a 
cash dispensing automatic banking machine having a conveyor which 
transports paper money bills diverted from the normal path of travel to a 
conveyor divert discharge station, the combination of a container having 
walls forming a bill-receiving opening provided with a closure lid; lock 
means mounted on a container wall having bolt means located inside the 
container cooperatively connected with the closure lid for moving the 
closure lid from closed to open position as the bolt means is actuated 
from locked to unlocked mode, and vice-versa, and the lock means having a 
key opening accessible exteriorly of the container; key means including a 
key for the lock means movably mounted on and sealed to the banking 
machine; means for mounting and retaining said container in position on 
the banking machine oriented to telescopically receive in said key opening 
said key for unlocking said lock means, and when so oriented to locate the 
container opening and its said closure lid adjacent said conveyor divert 
discharge station; and shroud means mounted on the banking machine 
protectively enclosing said conveyor divert discharge station and said 
container opening and closure lid when the container is in retained 
oriented position.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
A typical ATM for dispensing currency in response to the presentation by a 
bank customer of coded card means is diagrammatically illustrated at 1 in 
FIG. 1. Such an ATM may be energized when a customer presents or enters a 
coded card into slot 2. The coded card is verified to confirm that it is 
an authorized card and that the user thereof is the authorized user, 
through a card reader and other known devices contained in the ATM 1 or 
electrically connected thereto. 
After the card and customer verification has been carried out, keyboard 
entries may be made by the customer at 3 in accordance with instructions 
presented to the customer at instruction panel 4. The entries, among other 
matters, may indicate the amount of currency that the customer desires to 
withdraw, or may indicate that the customer desires to conduct another 
type of banking transaction. 
If currency is to be dispensed, it may be delivered from dispenser 
mechanism within the unit 1 at the cash dispenser station or customer 
access bill delivery receptacle 5. A record of or receipt for the 
transaction may, in some instances, be issued to the customer through 
receipt slot 6. The card entry slot 2, the keyboard 3, the instruction 
panel which may be a TV screen 4, the currency delivery receptacle 5, and 
the receipt slot 6 all are preferably formed in or carried out by the 
recessed facia plate means 7. 
Cash dispenser and possible related components are generally 
diagrammatically illustrated in FIGS. 2 and 3 and may include one or more 
containers 8 for supply stacks of paper money in the form of bills of one 
or more denominations protectively held in the container or containers 8. 
Such containers may be of the type shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,113,140 
wherein the containers are identified as sealed tamper-indicating money 
dispenser containers. Any desired number of such containers for currency 
of different denominations may be present in an ATM. The currency supply 
container or containers 8 have associated therewith picker mechanism 
diagrammatically indicated by the block 9 which may be any desired type of 
mechanism for picking paper money bills, one at a time, from a stacked 
supply and for feeding the same, bill by bill, to other components of the 
ATM. 
The ATM components diagrammatically shown in FIGS. 2 and 3 may also include 
doubles detect mechanism, not shown but similar to such mechanism 
described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,154,437 over which the concepts of the 
present invention comprise improvements, FIGS. 1, 2 and 3 being generally 
similar to such views in U.S. Pat. No. 4,154,437. 
As described in said U.S. Pat. No. 4,154,437, currency to be dispensed is 
delivered by the picker mechanism 9 to transport means, such as the belt 
conveyor generally indicated at 10, for delivery in the direction of the 
arrow 11 to the currency delivery receptacle 5. As the bills are conveyed 
from the picker 9 to the belt conveyor 10, the bills pass through a 
doubles detect zone which detects the presence of doubles. When doubles 
are detected, the belt conveyor 10 is reversed and the detected doubles 
are diverted from movement in the direction of the arrow 11, to movement 
in the opposite direction indicated by the arrow 12 to discharge the 
diverted bills at the divert discharge end 13 of the belt conveyor 10 and 
to deliver such bills to a container or receptacle. 
The concepts of the invention relate to an improved container construction 
generally indicated at 14 and its cooperative and coordinated relationship 
with other components of the ATM 1. The container 14 (FIGS. 4, 5 and 6) is 
a boxlike receptacle having a bottom wall 15, end walls 16 and 17, and 
side walls 18 and 19. The side wall 18, at its upper end, has an inturned 
flange 20. The flange 20 and the upper ends of the side wall 19 and end 
walls 16 and 17 define a top opening 21 (FIG. 6) for the container 14 into 
which diverted bills are discharged by the divert discharge end 13 of the 
belt conveyor 10. The opening 21 is closed by a pivoted lid or cover 
member generally indicated at 22. The lid 22 has a top wall 23, a side 
flange 24, and end flanges 25 which are pivotally mounted at 26 on the end 
walls 16 and 17 of the container 14. 
The side and end flanges 24 and 25 of the closure lid 22 surround the outer 
upper ends of the container side wall 19 and end walls 16 and 17 while the 
side edge 27 of lid top wall 22 extends beneath the inturned flange 20 on 
container side wall 18 as well shown in FIG. 5. In order to permit the lid 
22 to pivot between the closed position of FIG. 5 and the open position of 
FIG. 6, the top wall 23 is provided with slots 28 at each end thereof best 
shown in FIGS. 10 and 12. Thus, when the lid 22 is in the closed position 
shown in FIGS. 4, 5 and 12, the container 14 is completely closed and its 
contents are inaccessible from outside the container. 
The container 14 is provided with a lock 29 having a housing 30 mounted on 
and extending through the container end wall 17. The lock mounting means 
preferably includes a nut 31 in clamping threaded engagement with the 
threads 32 on the outside of the housing 30 (FIG. 7). Thus, the nut 31 is 
inaccessibly located inside the container when the lock 29 is locked with 
the lid 22 closed. The lock bolt 33 is a rotary bolt having a lever 34 
(FIG. 5) mounted thereon. The outer end of the lever 34 is pivotally 
connected at 35 to a link 36 which is pivotally connected at its other end 
at 37 to an angle bracket 38 mounted on the inside of lid top wall 23. 
The lever 34 is clamped to the lock bolt 33 by a nut 39 so that when the 
lock 29 is in locked condition or mode of FIGS. 5, 7 and 8, the lock bolt 
33 through the lever 34 and link 36 holds the lid 22 locked in closed 
position. The lock bolt 33 is rotated to the unlocked position of FIGS. 6 
and 9 when the lock 29 is unlocked, and the lock bolt thus through the 
lever 34 and link 36 moves the lid 22 to the open position shown. In this 
manner the lock 29 actuates the lid 22 to move it between closed and open 
positions as the lock is, respectively in locked or unlocked modes. 
The lock 29 is actuated or locked and unlocked by a key 40 mounted in a key 
retainer, generally indicated at 41, which in turn is mounted on a bracket 
plate 42. The bracket plate 42 may be fixed in any suitable manner to a 
frame plate 43 of the mechanism (FIG. 10). The key retainer 41 preferably 
may be a molded plastic member which extends axially and rotatably through 
an opening 44 formed in the bracket 42. The retainer 41 has a flange 45 
formed at one end thereof (FIG. 11) which engages one face of the bracket 
42 to prevent the retainer 41 from being removed from the bracket 42 by 
axial movement to the left in FIG. 7. 
A hollow pin 46 extends through a hole drilled in the retainer 41 and 
through the key 40 (FIGS. 9, 10 and 11), and the ends of the pin 46 
project beyond the outer cylindrical surface of the retainer 41, as shown, 
to provide stop means preventing removal of the key retainer 41 and key 40 
from the bracket 42 by axial movement of the retainer to the right viewing 
FIG. 7. 
The key retainer 41, key 40 and hollow pin 46 are maintained sealed in the 
condition shown against removal without indicating tampering, by a wire 
and lead seal 47, the wire extending through pin 46. However, the key 
retainer 41 and key 40 assembly when sealed captively in tamper-indicating 
condition to the bracket 42, may be rotated and axially moved to various 
rotated and axial locations within the opening 44 in bracket 42. 
Key 40 has a hollow cylindrical lock barrel 48 projecting from the flanged 
end of the key retainer 41 and which is adapted to telescope into the 
housing 30 of a container lock 29 when the container is properly located 
and positioned with respect to the key retainer upon being assembled with 
the components of the ATM 1. When the lock barrel end 48 of the key 40 is 
telescoped into the housing 30 of a lock 29 when the lock 29 is in a 
locked condition or mode, the key 40 may be rotated to actuate the lock to 
unlocked condition, thereby unlocking a container lid 22 and moving the 
same to open position. 
Referring to FIGS. 7, 8, 10 and 11, the key held captive to the ATM unit 
has its handle portion 49 oriented vertically, as shown, to indicate that 
it is in a state whereby it may be telescoped by axial movement into a 
lock 29 which is in a locked mode. When the key 40 is thus telescoped into 
a lock 29 and rotated, the orientation of the key handle 49 is as 
illustrated in FIG. 9, indicating actuation of the lock 29 to an unlocked 
mode, and movement of the container lid 22 to open position, and locking 
of the container to the ATM, against removal. 
In accordance with the concepts of the invention, the captive key 40 has 
only one other similar key for the lock 29. The second key is held at the 
central bank where the container 14 is unlocked and unloaded of diverted 
bills discharged into the container when open and locked to the ATM unit. 
This two-key control of the lock 29 of any container 14 provides the same 
degree of security for the container 14 that is provided for the supply of 
money in locked containers with which the ATM is charged, in accordance 
with the disclosure of U.S. Pat. No. 4,113,140. 
An empty locked container 14 when brought by a security messenger to a 
remote ATM unit is assembled with the unit (assuming that a container 14 
filled with diverted currency first has been removed from the unit in a 
manner described below) by moving it upward at an angle as shown in FIG. 4 
to insert its upper end inside of a metal U-shaped retainer strap 50 
mounted in fixed position as a part of the frame of the ATM cash dispenser 
unit. The container 14 may be manipulated by a handle 14a to insert the 
upper end of the container within retainer strap 50. During such 
insertion, the righthand end of the container 14 (FIG. 3) must be slipped 
behind the flange 51 of bracket 52 also mounted in fixed position on the 
frame of the unit. Container 14 must be raised to a position above bracket 
53 on picker 9 so that it may be lowered onto bracket 53 on which the 
bottom wall 15 of container 14 rests and is held with installation is 
completed. Bracket 53 has an upturned flange 54 at its end which engages 
the container corner at the lower end of container end wall 17. 
In this manner the container 14 is properly positioned so that it cannot be 
moved to the right or left or downward, viewing FIG. 3, and the upper end 
of the container is trapped within the U-shaped retainer 50. The container 
so positioned as shown in FIG. 7 is located or oriented so that the key 
and key retainer assembly 40-41 may be moved axially to telescope the key 
lock barrel 48 into the container lock 29. The key in telescoped position 
is shown in FIG. 8 and at this time the key 40 may be rotated to the 
position shown in FIG. 9 to unlock the lock 29 and open the lid 22 as 
shown in FIG. 6. 
The top opening 21 of the container 14 when the lid 22 is opened thus is 
presented for receiving diverted bills discharged by the conveyor 10 at 
the divert discharge end 13 of the conveyor. 
An angular metal shroud generally indicated at 55 having a top wall 56, a 
side wall 57 and end walls 58 and 59 (FIGS. 3 and 5) is mounted on the 
unit frame to cover the divert end 13 of the conveyor 10. The upper end of 
the container 14 when open, thus is protected against access by any 
person, whether or not authorized, so as to prevent fishing of bills 
discharged into the container 14 while the container is open even though 
locked to the unit. The shroud 55 may be mounted on the unit by an angular 
tab 60 projecting through the shroud end wall 59 and by a screw 61 
extending through the shroud end wall 58 and engaged in a threaded opening 
62 in the bracket plate 42 on which the key retainer 41 is mounted (FIGS. 
7 and 10). Shroud 55 is sealed to the unit by wire and lead seal 63 
engaged through an opening in shroud end wall 58 and an aligned opening 64 
in bracket plate 42. 
A container 14 filled with diverted currency can only be removed from the 
ATM unit by actuating the key 40 to close the lid 22 and lock the 
container lock 29, when the key 40 may be axially withdrawn from the lock 
29 to the position shown in FIG. 7. At this time, the container 14 is 
released from locked connection with the ATM unit and may be manipulated 
by handle 14a to disengage container 14 from the angle bracket 53 and the 
bracket flange 51. When released, it may be transported by a transport 
guard to the central bank where the container 14 may be opened by the twin 
of key 40 located at the bank. 
A fundamental purpose or objective of the invention is to control access, 
by personnel servicing ATM's or others, to diverted bills during delivery 
to, deposit in and storing of such bills in a container for transportation 
of such bills in sealed, tamper-indicating condition in said container 
from a remote ATM to a central bank. Such personnel may involve 
individuals who may be carrying out servicing, adjusting or other 
maintenance or repair tasks upon any part or portion of the remotely 
located ATM and, thus, may have access generally to the interior of and 
devices located in the housing of the ATM 1. 
Such personnel are entirely different from the usual bonded transport 
guards that may transport banking media in armored cars from one to 
another protected banking facility. It is possible to identify transport 
guards who are handling sealed containers if any tampering with such 
containers during such transportation is discovered. 
Fundamental characterizing features of the concepts of the invention, which 
combine to provide maximum security for diverted bills collected in a 
divert container component of an ATM, include, the location of a container 
opening, when the closure for the opening is in open position, immediately 
adjacent the discharge end of conveyor means which delivers diverted bills 
to the container; the shrouded enclosure both of the divert delivery end 
of the conveyor and of the container opening; the locking of the container 
to the ATM unit when the container closure is in open position; the use of 
a key captively mounted on the ATM to actuate a container closure lock and 
to actuate through the lock, said closure between closed and open position 
as the lock changes from locked to unlocked mode, respectively, and vice 
versa; the securing of the container when mounted on the ATM against 
removal by the trapped key engagement with the container lock when the 
latter is in unlocked condition; the provision of retaining and 
positioning means locating the container when assembled with the ATM in 
position for actuating the container lock by the trapped key, the 
positioning being such that the shrouded enclosure protects the container 
closure and lock against fishing access to the interior of the container; 
and the location of the container lock mechanism inside the container when 
the closure is closed and locked by the lock. 
The cooperative interrelation of the components which provide these 
features combine to provide a truly sealed, tamper-indicating container 
construction for assembly with an ATM, which container receives and stores 
diverted bills while assembled with the ATM, and also transports the bills 
to a central bank from the ATM, under conditions of maximum security. 
For example, the shroud means, container assembly orientation and retention 
means, the cooperative positioning of the trapped key and container when 
assembled to the ATM, and the location of the container lock mechanism 
within the container, all contribute to providing a greater degree of 
security for bills received and stored in the container at all times, than 
the security provided by the divert container construction of U.S. Pat. 
No. 4,154,437. 
Accordingly, the new construction satisfies the stated objectives and 
solves problems and answers needs that have existed in the art. 
In the foregoing description, certain terms have been used for brevity, 
clearness and understanding but no unnecessary limitations are to be 
implied therefrom beyond the requirements of the prior art because such 
terms are used for descriptive purposes and are intended to be broadly 
construed. 
Moreover, the description and illustration of the invention is by way of 
example, and the scope of the invention is not limited to the exact detail 
shown or described. 
Having now described the features, principles and cooperative relationships 
of the new structures, and the advantageous, new and useful results 
obtained, the new structures, devices, components, elements, arrangements, 
parts, combinations and relationships are set forth in the appended 
claims.