GB2225891A

GB2225891A - Automatic teller machine

Info

Publication number: GB2225891A
Application number: GB8924532A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Sigemi Kawamura
Original assignee: Toshiba Corp
Current assignee: Toshiba Corp
Priority date: 1988-10-31
Filing date: 1989-10-31
Publication date: 1990-06-13
Also published as: GB8924532D0; KR900006893A; JPH02121080A; JP2685843B2

Abstract

An automatic teller machine handles deposit and payment transactions of bills. The automatic teller machine comprises a safe (16 to 18) removably installed in the automatic teller machine to store many bills, a memory (95) provided in the safe to store identification information indicative of whether or not a corresponding safe taken out of the machine has been filled with bills by a bill arranger, and a judging device for reading the identification information from the memory to judge whether or not the safe is one which has been filled with bills. <IMAGE>

Description

TITLE OF THE INVENTION AUTOMATIC TELLER MACHINE BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an automatic teller machine installed in an automated corner of a bank branch and receiving/dispensing bank notes.

2. Description of the Prior Art Financial institutions such as banks employ magnetic cards (recording media) in achieving their teller works with automatic teller machine, (ATM).

For a payment transaction, for example, a customer inputs an amount of money to be paid into the automatic teller machine. Then, the teller machine takes out bills from safes disposed in a receiving/dispensing unit of the teller machine and dispenses the bills to the customer. If the bills stored in the safes of the receiving/dispensing unit are consumed due to payment transactions, a person in charge takes the safes out of the receiving/dispensing unit of the ATM to fill the safes with bills. After that, the safes are again installed in the automatic teller machine to resume the deposit and payment transactions.

In these days, the automatic teller machines tend to be no-man-operated on holidays or extensively after business hours of the banks. According to a conventional automatic teller machine, a serviceman instead of a person in charge of the bank shall supply bills to Safes of a receiving/dispensing unit of the teller machine if the safes become empty. This may cause accidents so that the conventional teller machine is not adequate for atrict management of bills.

To cope with this, the person in charge of the bank may fill several spare safes with bills during business hours before, for instance, holidays during which the automatic teller machine is no-man-operated. If bills stored in the automat to teller machine are exhausted during the holidays, a serviceman is called, and the serviceman will remove empty safes from the automatic teller machine and install the spare safes prepared beforehand to the automatic teller machine.

In such a case, many safes shall be handled. Since the appearances of the safes are the same as each other, it is difficult to distinguish one from another. Namely, it is difficult to know which one is filled with bills and which one is not. When the serviceman installs the safes in the automatic teller machine, it is possible that he installs, by mistake, empty safes.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide an automatic teller machine that can strictly manage bills stored in safes removably installed in the automatic teller machine.

Another object of the present invention is to provide an automatic teller machine which enables a person in charge to readily distinguish safes filled with bills from those with no bills.

Still another object of the present invention is to provide an automatic teller machine that can prevent empty safes from being mistakenly installed in a receiving/dispensing unit of the automatic teller machine.

In order to accomplish the objects, the present invention provides an automatic teller machine comprising safes removably installed in the automatic teller machine to hold many bills; memory means for storing information that t indicates whether or not a corresponding safe taken out of the automatic teller machine has been filled with bills by a bill arranger; and judging means to read, when the safe is again installed in the automatic teller machine, the memory means and judge whether or not the safe has been filled with bills by the bill arranger.

According to this arrangement, the memory means stores information whether or not a safe taken out of the automatic teller machine has been filled with bills by the bill arranger. When the safe is again installed in the automatic teller machine, it is judged whether or not the safe has been filled with bills by the bill arranger. As a result, management of the safe is improved.

These and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will be more apparent from the following detailed description of preferred embodiments in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Fig. 1 is a perspective view showing the appearance of an automatic teller machine according to an embodiment of the invention; Fig. 2 is a block diagram showing control of the automatic teller machine of Fig. 1; Fig. 3 is a view showing the arrangement of a reeeiving/dispcnsing unit; Fig. 4 is a block diagram showing control of the receiving/dispensing unit of Fig. 3; Fig. 5(a) is a view showing the appearance of a safe cassette;; Figs. 5(b) to 5(d) are views showing a locking mechanism of the safe cassette of Fig. 5(a).

Figs. 6(a) to 6(c) are views showing control of the safe cassette of Fig. 5(eat Fig. 7 is a view showing the arrangement of a bill arranger; Fig. B is a view showing the appearance of a modification of the automatic teller machine of Fig. 1; Fig. 9 is a view showing removal and installation of the safe cassette; and Figs. 10(a) to 10(d) are flowcharts showing operation of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS The embodiment of the invention will be explained with reference to the drawings.

Fig. 1 is a perspective view showing the appearance of an automatic teller machine according to the embodiment of the invention.

The automatic teller machine 1 comprises a frame 2 in front of which an operating portion 3 of L-shape is formed.

The operating portion 3 has a vertical operating portion 3a on which there are arranged a bankbook inserting port 4, a card inserting port 5 and a slip issuing port 6.

A horizontal operating portion 3b includes a receiving/dispensing port 7 for receiving and dispensing money. The reeciving/diapensing port 7 is provided with a door which is freely opened and closed. The horizontal operating portion 3b is also provided with a CRT display 9 incorporating a touch-sensor. The display 9 display information such as operating sequences with illustrations and characters to guide a customer. The display 9 also displays indications of a code number, an amount of money, an account number, and the approval, confirmation or cancellation of a transaction. Among these indications, the customer may push a desired one to start desired operation.

In the frame 2, a bankbook reading and printing apparatus (not shown) is arranged. The bankbook reading and printing apparatus receives a bankbook inserted through the bankbook inserting port 4, reads and records magnetic information of the bankbook, and prints the contents of a transaction on the bankbook.

A slip processing unit 11 is also arranged in the frame 2. The slip processing unit 11 handles a magnetic card inserted through the card inserting port 5, issues a slip through the slip issuing port 6, and makes a duplicate journal. The frame 2 also incorporates a receiving/dispensing unit 12 and an internal monitor 13.

The receiving/dispensing unit 12 receives bills A left to be picked up, collects the left bills, charges bills and precisely inspects bills.

As shown in Fig, 2, the frame 2 incorporates a main controller 51 for controlling the slip processing unit ils receiving/dispenslng unit 12, internal monitor 13 and the whole of the machine 1. The main controller 51 also controls e RAM 53 for storing the numbers of bills held in respective safe. 16 to 19, an interactive unit 55, a magnetic card reader 57, a bankbook printer 59 and a coin receiving/dispensing unit 61. In addition, the main controller 51 controls a voice information unit 63, a transmission controller 65 that controls data transmission between the automatic teller machine 1 and a host computer (a center) for managing transactions of the automatic teller machine 1, a floppy disk 67, a remoter monitor 69, and a power source 71.

An arrangement of the receiving/dispensing unit 12 will be explained with reference to Fig. 3.

The receiving/dispensing unit 12 comprises an upper unit 14a and a lower unit 14b. The upper unit 14a is provided on its upper front side (facing a customer) with a bill receiving/dispensing portion 15 that corresponds to the receiving/dispensing port 7. On the rear side of the upper unit 14a, a charging safe 19 is arranged. The charging safe 19 has a bill storing portion 23. Inside the lower unit 14b, there are arranged, from the front to the rear thereof, a receiving safe 18, a 1,000-yen bills safe 17 and a 10,000-yen bills safe 16. The safes have a storing portion 22 for storing bills that are not appropriate for payment, a 1,000-yen bills storing portion 21 and a 10,000-yen bills storing portion 20, respectively.

The safes 16 to 19 are provided with receiver plates 24, 25, 26 and 27, respectively, Each of the safes is also provided with flappers 315 as pertition means for defining a space 301 acting as a collecting portion.

Around the vertical center of the front side of the upper unit 14a, an inspecting portion 36 is arranged. On the right side of the inspecting portion 36, there are arranged a payment temporarily collecting portion 37 and a deposit temporarily collecting portion 38.

Inside the reeeiving/dispensing unit 12, a bill transporting path R is formed to transport bills A to respective parts. At branches of the path R, gates 39a to 39k are arranged. The gates are driven by rotary solenoids (not shown), On the bill transporting path R at proper locations, bill passage detectors 40a to 40y are arranged.

At collecting points of the bills A, bill presence detectors (sensors) 41a to 41d are arranged. The bill passage detectors 40a to 40y and bill presence detectors 41a to 41d are of known arrangements comprising light emitting and receiving elements a Control of the receiving/dispensing unit 12 will be explained with reference to Fig. 4.

The receiving/dispensing unit 12 includes the 10,000-yen bills safe 16, 1,000-yen bills safe 17 and receiving safe 18. These safes are provided with EEPROMs 95a to 95c, respectively, for storing the kinds of bills held in the safes and the numbers of bills of the respective kinds. Each of the EEPROMs 95a to 95c is connected to a safe memory controller 91 for detecting the kinds and numbers of the bills stored in the safes. The safe memory controller 91 is connected to a controller 92.

The controller 92 responds to detective signals of rejected bills from the inspecting portion 36 as well as signals indicating the numbers of bills of the respective kinds held in the safes from the safe memory controller 91, and outputs drive signals to a driving circuit 93. The driving circuit 93 receives the drive signals from the controller 92 to pick up bills from the safes and drive the bill transporting path, The constitution of a safe cassette 72 that forms each of the safes 16 to 19 is shown in Fig. 5(e). The safe cassette 72 comprises a body 73 of a rectangular parallelepiped and a lid 74 formed on one face of the body 73. The lid 74 is freely opened and closed around a roller shaft 75. At the center of the bottom of the body 73, an automatic lock 76 is arranged to control the open and close of the lid 74.A hole 77 is formed at the center of the automatic lock 76 to engage with a lock plate 80. On the side face of the body 73, a reed switch 78 is disposed.

Due to magnetic force of a magnet of the lid 74, the reed switch 75 detects that the safe cassette 72 is removed from or inserted in the receiving/diQpensing unit 12. At the center of a lower edge of the lid 74, a lock mechanism 79 is disposed to control the open and close of the lid 74.

The lock mechanism 79 is provided with the lock plate 80 that engages with the hold 77. Under an unlockable state, the lock plate 80 is turned by an external key 81 to close the lid 74.

Figure 5(b) shows locking control of the safe cassette 72.

When the lid 74 is disabled to open, that is a normal state of the safe cassette 72, a hook 52 is engaging with the lock plate 80, and, even if the key 81 is inserted and turned, the lock plate 80 does not turn, Since the lock plate SO does not turn, the lid 74 cannot be opened with the operation of the key 81.

On the other hand, under the unlockable state, a lock controller 87 connected to a safe controller 97a or 97b to be explained later applies a pulse to a solenoid 66 to attract a plunger 85. The solenoid 86 is of a elf-holding type incorporating a permanent magnet. Once the solenoid 86 attracts the plunger 85, the solenoid maintains this state. After the pulse is applied, e lower edge of the hook 82 moves in the direction of an arrow mark so that the hook 82 separates from the lock plate 80 and the lock plate 80 is operable by the key 81 in the opening direction, As a result, the lid 74 can be opened.

Under an unlock disabled state, the lock controller 87 applies a pulse to the solenoid 86. Then, the plunger 85 returns to its original position so that the hook 82 engages with a groove of the lock plate 80 with the help of a hook spring 89. Once the hook 82 engages with the groove of the lock plate 80, the lock plate SO cannot be turned by the operation of the key 81 so that the lid 74 cannot be opened., To detect a movement of the hook 82, an optical sensor B8 is disposed above the hook 82. The optical sensor 88 has a channel shape to detect a part of the hook 82. The optical sensor 88 is provided with a light emitting element at one end of the channel shape and a light receiving element at the other end of the channel shape. When light emitted from the light emitting element is blocked by a part of the hook 82, the sensor 88 detects an opening state of the hook 82 to output a detective signal to the controller 97a or 97b.

A link spring 90 helps the plunger 85 returning to its original position.

A magnetic indicator 114 is arranged above the hook 82 as shown in Fig. 5(b). According to a set pulse sent from the controller 97, the magnetic indicator 114 indicates whether or not the safe cassette 72 has been filled with bills A by a bill arranger 100.

Details of the magnetic indicator 114 will be explained with reference to Figs. 5(c) and 5(d).

The magnetic indicator 114 comprises an electromagnet core 115, a coil 116 wound around the core 115, and a permanent magnet 117 rotatably disposed between magnetic poles of both ends of the electromagnet core 115. One face of the permanent magnet 117 is a colored face C and the other is a black face B. According to the set pulse from the controller 97, a current of normal direction flows through the coil 116 to magnetize the electromagnet core 115 such that the colored face C of the permanent magnet 117 is seen. Due to residual magnetism of the electromagnet core 115, the colored face C is held as it is as shown in Fig. 5(c).

If a reset pulse is applied to the magnetic indicator 114, a current of reverse direction flows through the coil 116 to invert the polarity of the electromagnet core 115 such that the display disk is inverted to show the black face B. Residual magnetism of the electromagnet core 115 holds the display disk as it is as shown in Fig. 5(d).

In this way, by changing the polarity of the electromagnet core 115, the display disk is reversed and self-held to display the colored face C or the black face B. The black face B of Fig. 5(d) indicates that the corresponding safe cassette is not yet filled with bills A by the bill arranger 10, and the colored face C of Fig.

5(c) indicates that the corresponding safe cassette has been filled with bills A by the bill arranger 100. The face C or B is seen through a window 118 of the lid 74.

Control of each safe such as the 10,000-yen bills safe 16 will be explained with reference to block diagrams of Figs. 6(a) and 6(b).

The safe cassette 72 shown in Fig. 6(a) is provided with an EEPROM 95 which is an electrically erasable nonvolatile memory, while the cassette 72 of Fig. 6(b) is provided with a battery 94 as a power source.

The safe cassette 72 of Fig. 6(a) is provided not only with the EEPROM 95 but also with the controller 97a and an interface 98a. The EEPROM 95 stores at predetermined addresses the kinds of bills stored in the safe cassette and the numbers of bills of the respective kinds. Data stored in the predetermined addresses of the EEPROM 95 do not disappear even when power is disconnected. The EEPROM 95 has a flag that will be 0 when the safe cassette 72 can handle transactions and 1 when the safe cassette cannot handle transactions. The controller 97a specifies an address of the EEPROM 95 through an address line, and then specifies a read line or a write line to read or write data through a data line. At the same time, the controller 97a sends a set pulse to the magnetic indicator 114. The interface 98a controls data transmission between the controller 97a and the controller 92, etc.The interface 98a realizes the data transmission according to serial-to-parallel conversion of tart-6top synchronization, The safe cassette 72 of Fig. 6(b) is provided with the power source 94 for supplying electricity to the controller 97b, etc. Due to the provision of the power source 94, the controller 97b stores a detective signal from the optical sensor 88 that detects the open and close of the lid 74 of corresponding one of the safes 16 to 19, into addresses of EEPROMs 95a and 95b. When the number of stored detective signals exceeds an allowable value, the controller 97b judges that the lid 74 of corresponding one of the safes 16 to 19 is out of order.Then, when the safe is filled with bills by the bill arranger 100, the controller 97b warns of a failure of the lie 74 through, for example, an alarin lamp.

The EPROM 95b is a backup of the EEPROM 95a. The backup EEPROM 95b stores the same information as that stored in the EEPROM 95a. With this arrangement, even if, for example, power disconnection occurs, the information stored In the EEPROMs 95a and 95b are securely held. In addition, by collating the information of the EEPROM 95a with that of the EEPROM 95b, reliability of the information will improve.

ror transmitting information from the safe cassette 72, a light emitting diode LED 99a is used, and for receiving information, a photodiode 99b is used. The information is transmitted and received through an interface 98b. Since a solar battery 99c is provided for the safe cassette 72, electricity is supplied thereto independent of external power sources to ave maintenance costs.

If the safe cassette 72 of the above-mentioned arrangement becomes empty of bills, it shall be supplied with bills by the bill arranger 100. To do so, the safe cassette 72 is set in the bill arranger 100 and then bills are supplied to the safe cassette 72. After that, the safe cassette 72 is removed from the bill arranger 100 and installed in the receiving/dispensing unit 12.

Accordingly, unlike conventional techniques, a person in charge will never touch bills that are filled from the bill arranger 100 to the safe cassettes. Therefore, the bills to be filled in the safe cassettes are strictly managed.

Figure 6(e) shows a table containing safe numbers, machine numbers, etc., stored in predetermined addresses of the EEPROMs 95a and 95b. When the safe cassette 72 is installed in the automatic teller machine 1, a number of the automatic teller machine 1 is stored in the table.

When the safe cassette 72 is set in the bill arranger 100, a number of the bill arranger 100 is stored in the table.

Basod on the numbers of the automatic teller machine 1, etc., it is possible to judge whether or not the safe cassette 72 to be installed in the automatic teller machine 1 has been treated by the bill arranger 100. Further, the safe cassette 72 taken out of one automatic teller machine 1 is prevented from being installed in another automatic teller machine 1.

Figure 7 shows an arrangement of the bill arranger 100 for filling a safe such as the rafe cassette 19 with bills'.

The bill arranger 100 comprises a counting unit 101 and a filling unit 102 which fills the safe cassette with bills.

The counting unit 101 is provided on its front face an ID card inserting port 103 to which an ID card is inserted.

The ID card stores an operator number, etc. The counting unit 101 is also provided with a hopper 104 which is located below the ID card inserting port 103. The hopper 104 charges bills A to the safe cassette. Behind the hopper 104, there is arranged an inspecting portion 105 for judging and counting the kinds and numbers oE the bills A to be sequentially charged from the hopper 104. Above the inspecting portion 105, there is arranged a rejected bills collecting portion 106 for collecting bills rejected by the inspecting portion 105. Adjacent to the rejected bills collecting portion 106, there is arranged a spoiled bills collecting portion (an open pocket) 107 for collecting bills that have been judged as spoiled bills by the inspecting portion 105.

Bills A judged as correct bills by the inspecting portion 105 are transported from the inspecting portion 105 vertically to the filling unit 102 through a transporting path R12. Then, the bills are horizontally transported from the central part of the filling unit 102 and put in the safe cassette 19 set in advance. The number of each kind of the bills A put in the safe cassette 19 is accumulated by the inspecting portion 105 and written in a predetermined address of the EEPROM 95 of the safe cassette 19.

Figure 8 shows a modification of the receiving/ dispensing unit 12. According to this modification, each of 10,000-yen bills safe 16 and 1,000-yen bills safe 17 disposed in a lower unit 14b is provided with rejected bills storing portions 20a and 20b of two-pieces storing type. For example, for a payment transaction, a 10,000-yen bill picked up from the 10,000-yen bills safe 16 is transported through a transporting path to an inspecting portion 36 for checking its kind and accumulating the number of bills. If the bill transported to the inspecting portion 36 is rejected by the inspecting portion 36, the rejected bill is transported to the 10,000-yen bills safe 16 through the transporting path.Then, the rejected bill is handled by a pickup roller 304a end received in the rejected bills storing portion 20b disposed at a lower part of the 10,000-yen bills safe 16. Similarly, if a 1,000-yen bill picked from the 1,000-yen bills safe 17 is rejected, it is received in the 1,000-yen rejected bills storing portion 21b.

The number of rejected bills taken out of, for example, the 10,000-yen bills safe 16 is stored in the EEPROM 95 of the safe to strictly manage the safe.

With reference to Fig. 9, how to install the receiving/dispensing unit 12 in the frame 2 will be explained.

The upper unit 14a and lower unit 14b are fixed to the inside and an inner wall 2c of the frame 2 with slide rails 'a and "b", respectively, and supported by them. Between the upper unit 14a and the lower unit 14b, a gap "d" is maintained. Rollers 110 are fitted to the bottom face of the upper unit 14a to roll over the top face of the lower unit 14b with the gap "d" between them such that the gap "d" may not be reduced. Connection gears G transmit power of a driving motor arranged on the lower unit 14b to the upper unit 14a to drive a transmission system. In this way, the upper and lower units 14a and 14b are supported by the slide rails a" and "b" so that they may be pulled forward or backward from the frame 2, depending on necessity.

As shown in Figs. 1 and 9, the frame 2 is provided with a door 2a and an operating portion 3 on the front face thereof, and a door 2b on the rear face thereof. These doors can be opened and closed. Therefore, the upper and lower units 14a and 14b can be pulled forward or backward.

Depending on whether the units are pulled forward or backward, fitting positions of the connection gears C are changed. Namely, if the units are pulled forward, the gears are fitted to the lower unit 14b, and, when the units are pulled backward, the gears are fitted to the upper unit 14a.

Bill filling operation will be explained with reference to flowcharts of Figs. 10(a) to 10(c).

Firstly, the automatic teller machine is turned on to start transactions. If it is necessary to fill the safe cassette 72 with bills, a person in charge takes the safe cassette 72 out of the receiving/dispensing unit 12 of the automatic teller machine, and sets the safe cassette 72 in the bill arranger 100.

If the person in charge intends to fill the safe cassette 72 with bills by means of an operator panel disposed on the rear side of the bill arranger 100, a subroutine 100 is executed. If the person in charge checks to see whether or not the safe cassette 72 is empty of bills, a subroutine 200 for settlement is executed. If the person in charge wants to know whether or not the safe cassette 72 contains bills, a subroutine 300 is executed.

If it is necessary to check the number of rejected bills stored in the safe cassette 72, a subroutine 400 is executed. If the safe cassette 72 set in the receiving/dispensing unit 12 is to be replace, a subroutine 500 is executed. If the safe cassette is removed from the bill arranger 100, a subroutine 600 is carried out. If the safe cassette 72 ir installed in the automatic teller machine, subroutine 700 is carried out.

These are done in Steps 10 to 70.

Next, the operation of loading bills into the safe cassette 72 from the bill arranger 100 is described referring to Fig. 10(d).

First, the operator inserts his ID card from ID card insertion port 103. After insertion, the operator sets the safe cassette 72, for instance the safe cassette 16, in the filling unit 102. After settling, a system controller (not shown) reads the information from EEPROM 95 of the safe cassette 16 which has been set, and, if the safe cassette 72 which has been set is not empty, it completes the process by giving a warning by lighting the warning lamp (not shown). On the other hand, if the safe cassette 16 which has been set is in the empty state, the operator inserts the bills to be received in the safe cassette 16 from hopper 104. After insertion, when the operator presses the "START" key, the bill. are taken out from hopper 104 and transported to the inspecting portion 105.

The inspecting portion 105, after discriminating the fronts and backs of the bills and the bill denominations, counts the fit bills and transports them to the transporting path R12. The bills are accumulated in the bill storing portion 23 of the safe cassette 16 after conveyed along the transporting path R12. If the accumulated bills amount to the number of bills for receiving, they are received in the bill storing portion 23. On the other hand if they do not amount to the number of bills for receiving, they will be received by the bill storing portion 23 when up to 100 sheets of bills have been accumulated. After receiving, the process is completed by storing the number of received bills as information of the number of bills held to EEPROM 95 of the safe cassette 16 (Steps 1000 to 1150).

If the safe cassette 16 is set into the depositing/ dispensing unit 12 of the automatic teller machine 1, the bills which have been received therein, are loaded in the safe cassettes 17 and 18 as described previously.

As described above, when bills are loaded in the safe cassettes 17 and 18 set in the depositing/dispensing unit 12, the bills are previously received in the safe cassette 16 or 19. Then the safe cassette 16 or 19 is set in the depositing/dispensing unit 12 of the automatic teller machine 1. After that, the bills are loaded from the safe cassette 16 or 19 to the safe cassettes 17 and 18, Therefore, the supervision of the bills received in the safe cassette 16 or 19 can be strictly performed.

The characteristics of the invention reside in the process of removing the safe cassette 72 from the bill arranger 100 (subroutine 600) and the process of installing the safe cassette 72 to the automatic teller machine (subroutine 700). These processes will be explained in detail.

Figure 10(b) shows the details of the subroutine 600, In Step 600, the main controller 51 outputs a removing instruction signal to the controller 92, Then, the controller 92 stops the operation in Step 610. After the stoppage, the controller 97 stores information in the EEPROM 95 of a corresponding safe cassette. Namely, the controller 97 stores the kinds of filled bills and the numbers of bills of the respective kinds into the EEPROM 95 of the safe cassette 72, and sets a flag indicating the readiness of transaction of the corresponding safe cassette 72 to 0. At the same time, the controller 97 sends a set pulse to the magnetic indicator 114 to drive the display disk such that the colored face C is seen from the window 118 of the lid 74, the colored face C indicating that the safe cassette 72 has been filled with bills by the bill arranger 100. After that, the safe cassette 72 is removed from the bill arranger 100. (Steps 600 to 630).

Then, only by observing the window 118 of the lid 74 of the safe cassette 72, a person in charge can find whether or not the safe cassette 72 is full of bills.

Figure 10(c) shows the details of the subroutine 700 for installing the safe cassette to the automatic teller machine. When the main controller 51 outputs an installation instructing signal to the controller 92, the controller 92 stops to the operation (Steps 700 and 710).

When the safe cassette 72 is installed in the automatic teller machine, the numbers and kinds of bills stored in the safe cassette are read from the EEPROM 95 of the cassette (Step 730). After the completion of the reading operation, the controller 92 judges whether or not a flag of the EEPROM 95 is 0. If the flag is 0, the process of the bill arranger is completed, and, if not 0, an crror warning is generated (Steps 740 and 750).

As described in the above, according to the present invention, a magnetic indicator is arranged to show whether or not a corresponding safe cassette is filled with bills by a bill arranger to let a person in charge quickly judge whether or not the safe cassette contains bills. Even if the person in charge mistakenly installs an empty safe cassette in an automatic teller machine, a memory (EEPROM) of the safe cassette that is storing a flag indicative of the emptiness may cause the automatic teller machine to give a warning to let the person in charge notice the mistake at once.

As a result, bills stored in safes that are removable from the automatic teller machine can strictly be managed.

Various modifications will become possible for those skilled in the art after receiving the teachings of the present disclosure without departing from the scope thereof.

Claims

WHAT IS CLAIMED IS:

1. An automatic machine for handling deposit and payment transactions of bills, comprising: a safe removably installed in the automatic teller machine to store many bills; memory means provided in said safe to store identification information indicative of whether or not said safe is the one which has been installed in the automatic teller machine; and judging means for judging whether or not said safe is the one which has been installed in the automatic teller machine according to the identification information stored in said memory means.

2. The automatic machine as claimed in claim 1, further comprising: indicating means provided for said safe to indicate whether or not said safe is the one which has been installed in the automatic teller machine.

3. The automatic machine as claimed in claim 1, further comprising: writing means for writing information that said safe has been installed in the automatic teller machine, into said memory means.

4. The automatic machine as claimed in claim 1, wherein said judging means judges whether or not said safe is the one which has been installed in the automatic teller machine and gives a warning if said safe is the one which has been installed in the automatic teller machine.

5. An automatic teller system for handling deposit and payment transactions of bills as well as carrying out a bill supplying action, comprising: (a) a safe removably installed in the automatic teller machine to store many bills; (b) a bill arranger for charging bills to said safe removed from the automatic teller machine; (c) memory means provided for said safe to store identification information indicative of whether or not said safe removed from the automatic teller machine has been filled with bills by said bill arranger; and (d) judging means provided for the automatic teller machine to read, when said safe is installed in the automatic teller machine, the identification information from said memory means and judge whether or not said saè has been filled with bills by said bill arranger.

6. The automatic teller system as claimed in claim 5, further comprisinge indicating means provided for said safe to indicate whether or not said safe removed from the automatic teller machine has been filled with bills by said bill arranger.

7' The automatic teller system as claimed in claim 5, wherein said judging means judges whether or not said safe has been filled with bills by said bill arranger and gives a warning if it is judged that said safe has not been filled with bills.

8. The automatic teller system as claimed in claim 5, further comprising! writing means provided for the automatic teller machine to rewrite the identification information after said safe is installed in the automatic teller machine, subjected that said safe has been filled with bills by said bill arranger.

9. An automatic machine for handling deposit and payment transactions of bills substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying drawings.