Currency discriminator and authenticator having the capability of having its sensing characteristics remotely altered

DETAILED DESCRIPTION It is a principal object of the present invention to provide an improved method and apparatus for altering the functions performed by a currency handling device from the host system.
In one embodiment, a note counting device is coupled to a host system such as a cash settlement machine.
The operator of the host enters the denomination of the notes to be counted by the note counting device.
The host system then sends a signal to the note counting device to establish the denomination that is to be counted.
The sensitivity level within the note counting device is internally set corresponding to the denomination of the plurality of notes associated with the signal sent by the host.
The note counting device then generates authenticity data from each of the plurality of notes and compares the authenticity data with the sensitivity level to determine whether each of the plurality of notes is genuine.
In another embodiment, the document handling device that is coupled to the host system has its default sensitivity settings altered through a similar process.
Thus, the host sends a signal to the document handling device instructing it to replace the default sensitivity levels with a new set of sensitivity levels.