Patent ID: 8678162

Claim:
A bill handling apparatus for handling received and dispensed bills, comprising: a bill receiving and dispensing port configured to receive bills for receipt and to accumulate bills discharged for dispensing; a bill discriminating unit configured to discriminate truth and denominations of the received and dispensed bills; a temporary storage unit configured to temporarily store bills discriminated by the bill discriminating unit; a plurality of bill storage boxes configured to store bills; a loading box configured to store bills that are added to the bill storage boxes or to collect and store bills conveyed from the bill storage boxes; a first looped conveying path that passes through the bill discriminating unit, is connected to the bill receiving and dispensing port, the temporary storage unit, and to the plurality of bill storage boxes at the outer side of the loop to convey bills in two directions in a bidirectional manner; a second conveying path connected to between the first loosed conveying path and the loading box at the outer side of the first looped conveying path to convey bills in two directions; a first gate, arranged in the first looped conveying path, that connects the first looped conveying path with the second conveying path and is configured to switch a conveying direction of the conveying path that conveys bills; a plurality of detecting sensors that are arranged at least in the first looped conveying path and are configured to detect a conveying state of bills; a controller configured to control at least switching of the first gate and conveyance of the conveying path; a first dispensing route configured to discharge bills fed from the bill storage boxes to the bill receiving and dispensing port through the bill discriminating unit by conveying the bills on the first looped conveying path in one of the two directions; and a second dispensing route configured to discharge the bills fed from the loading box to the second conveying path to the bill receiving and dispensing port through the bill discriminating unit by conveying the bills on the first looped conveying path in the other of the two directions via the first gate, not through the conveying path part connected with the bill storage box, wherein the controller is configured to monitor detection signals from the plurality of detecting sensors, determine a problem in conveying the bills on the first looped conveying path, and control the first dispensing route or the second dispensing route to be selected in accordance with the determination result.