Patent ID: 6994200

Claim:
A method for processing currency bills with a currency handling device, the method comprising the device performing the acts of: receiving a stack of a plurality of bills in an input receptacle; transporting the bills with a transport mechanism, one at a time, from the input receptacle along a transport path into a plurality of output receptacles, at least one of the plurality of the output receptacles including a holding area and a corresponding storage area; determining information concerning the bills with an evaluating unit at a rate of at least 800 bills per minute; maintaining a count of the total number of bills transported into the holding area; moving the bills transported into the holding area into the corresponding storage area after a predetermined number of bills have been stacked in the holding area; maintaining a count of the total number of bills moved into the storage area; tracking the movement of each of the bills along the transport path with a plurality of bill passage sensors, each of the plurality of sensors being adapted to detect the passage of a bill as each bill is transported past each sensor; detecting the presence of a bill jam when a bill is not transported past one of the plurality of bill passage sensors along the transport path within a predetermined amount of time; and suspending operation of the transport mechanism upon detection of a bill jam.