Patent ID: 8453820

Claim:
A currency processing system comprising: a first currency bill processing device having a plurality of output receptacles, the first currency bill processing device including an input receptacle adapted to receive bills to be processed and a transport mechanism adapted to transport the bills, one at a time, from the input receptacle past an evaluation unit to the plurality of output receptacles, the first currency bill processing device being adapted to determine information concerning each of the bills including determining the denomination of each of the bills, the first currency bill processing device being adapted to maintain a first count of the determined denominations of the processed bills; a second currency bill processing device for processing currency bills having at least one output receptacle, the second currency bill processing device being communicatively interfaced with the first currency bill processing device, the second currency bill processing device having an input receptacle adapted to receive currency bills and a transport mechanism adapted to transport the bills, one at a time, from the input receptacle past an evaluation unit to the at least one output receptacle, the evaluation unit of the second currency bill processing device being adapted to determine information concerning each of the bills including the denomination of each of the bills, the second currency bill processing device being adapted to maintain a second count of the determined denominations of the currency bills processed by the second currency processing device, the first currency bill processing device being adapted to receive the second count from the second currency processing device; wherein the second currency bill processing device is adapted to process bills previously processed by the first device; and wherein the first currency processing device is adapted to receive substitute currency media and currency bills and is adapted to off-sort substitute currency media from currency bills, the second currency processing device being adapted to processes the substitute currency media off-sorted by the first currency processing device and to determine information concerning the processed substitute currency media, the first currency processing device being adapted to receive the information concerning the processed substitute currency media from the second currency processing device.