Patent ID: 8684154

Claim:
A banknote handling apparatus for handling banknotes each having a unique code, the apparatus comprising: a storage unit configured to store the banknotes, and feed stored banknotes one by one; a memory unit configured to store a code list in which the codes of the banknotes stored in the storage unit are arranged in storage order of the banknotes; a recognition unit configured to read the codes of the banknotes sequentially fed from the storage unit; and a handling unit configured to check a target group of the codes of N successive banknotes including the banknote last fed from the storage unit against the code list, where N is a natural number not less than 3, and to identify when the target group and a reference group of the codes of N successive banknotes in the code list match each other, the banknotes remaining in the storage unit after the feeding of the banknotes by regarding one of the codes of the reference group in the code list as a boundary, wherein the handling unit determines that the target group and the reference group match each other when the order of the codes in the target group is identical to, or different from, the order of the codes in the reference group, wherein the handling unit identifies a highest-order code that is in a highest order in the code list among the codes included in the target group by sequentially checking the codes included in the target group from a higher order code in the code list, the handling unit identifies a lower-order code that is lower in order by Nâˆ’1 than the highest-order code in the code list, and determines whether the lower-order code is included in the target group or not, wherein when the lower-order code is determined to be included in the target group, the handling unit determines whether the target group includes a code sandwiched between the highest-order code and the lower-order code or not, and wherein when the target group is determined to include every code sandwiched between the highest-order code and the lower-order code, the handling unit determines that the target group and the reference group match each other.