Patent ID: 8276812

Claim:
Apparatus comprising: a banking system comprising: at least one automated transaction machine, wherein the at least one automated transaction machine includes an automated banking machine, wherein the machine is operative to cause financial transfers responsive at least in part to data provided by machine users, wherein the machine includes: at least one reader device, wherein the at least one reader device is operative to read customer identification data provided by a machine user, at least one display device, a currency note receiver operative to receive at least one currency note provided by a machine user, an imaging device operative to generate at least one image of at least a portion of a received currency note, at least one currency note assessor operative to assess validity of a received currency note, at least one note disfiguring device operative to permanently disfigure a currency note, at least one computer, wherein the at least one computer is in operative connection with the at least one reader device, the at least one display device, the currency note receiver, the imaging device, the at least one currency note assessor, and the at least one note disfiguring device, wherein the at least one computer is operative to cause customer identification data to be read through operation of the at least one reader device, and cause read customer identification data to be compared with authorized machine user identification data stored in an authorized machine user information data store, wherein the at least one computer is operative to allow a machine user to carry out a transaction responsive at least in part to the machine user being recognized as an authorized user of the machine based at least in part on computer-determined correspondence between customer identification data read by the at least one reader device, and authorized machine user identification data stored in the authorized machine user information data store, wherein the at least one computer is operative to cause a financial account to be assessed a value associated with a carried out transaction, wherein the at least one computer is operative to: cause the currency note receiver to receive a currency note from an authorized user of the machine, cause the imaging device to generate at least one image of at least a portion of the currency note received by the currency note receiver, wherein the at least one image includes information that uniquely identifies the currency note, cause the currency note received by the currency note receiver to be assessed as an invalid currency note through operation of the at least one currency note assessor, cause the at least one note disfiguring device to permanently disfigure the invalid currency note, wherein a permanently disfigured currency note is unsuitable for general circulation, and cause the at least one image generated by the imaging device to be sent to at least one remote computer.