A bill recognizing and counting apparatus configured to process bills in one of the following two bill processing modes including a denomination mode for recognizing a denomination of each bill and a counting mode for performing only counting the bills, the bill recognizing and counting apparatus comprising: a transport mechanism that transports a received bill one by one along a transport path; a recognizing unit that recognizes a type and/or condition of the bill; and a control unit that performs control of the transport mechanism and the recognizing unit according to a bill processing mode, wherein the bill processing mode includes the denomination mode for recognizing the denomination of the bill and the counting mode in which a denomination recognition process is not performed and the control of the transport mechanism in the denomination recognition mode is different from the control of the transport mechanism in the counting mode, wherein the transport mechanism includes a transport-path switching mechanism that switches the transport path to a branched transport path branched from a main transport path, and the control of the transport-path switching mechanism in the denomination recognition mode is different from the control of the transport switching mechanism in the counting mode, wherein a determination criterion in an abnormality detection in the counting mode is more relaxed than the determination criterion in the denomination recognition mode, and the control of the transport-path switching mechanism is performed based on the determination criterion in respective bill processing modes, the abnormal state of the bill is detected based on a skew degree of the bill, characterized in that when the bill processing mode is the counting mode, the control unit performs control for increasing the processing speed, which indicates the number of bills to be processed per unit time, by setting the feeding and transporting mechanism to a higher speed than the speed set in the denomination mode. a transport mechanism that transports a received bill one by one along a transport path; a recognizing unit that recognizes a type and/or condition of the bill; and a control unit that performs control of the transport mechanism and the recognizing unit according to a bill processing mode, wherein the bill processing mode includes the denomination mode for recognizing the denomination of the bill and the counting mode in which a denomination recognition process is not performed and the control of the transport mechanism in the denomination recognition mode is different from the control of the transport mechanism in the counting mode, wherein the transport mechanism includes a transport-path switching mechanism that switches the transport path to a branched transport path branched from a main transport path, and the control of the transport-path switching mechanism in the denomination recognition mode is different from the control of the transport switching mechanism in the counting mode, wherein a determination criterion in an abnormality detection in the counting mode is more relaxed than the determination criterion in the denomination recognition mode, and the control of the transport-path switching mechanism is performed based on the determination criterion in respective bill processing modes, the abnormal state of the bill is detected based on a skew degree of the bill, characterized in that when the bill processing mode is the counting mode, the control unit performs control for increasing the processing speed, which indicates the number of bills to be processed per unit time, by setting the feeding and transporting mechanism to a higher speed than the speed set in the denomination mode.