Intelligent currency handling system

DETAILED DESCRIPTION In accordance with one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a currency handling system in which a set of master currency bills are scanned by a primary machine to obtain master information associated with one or more attributes of the master currency bills.
The master information is stored in the memory of the primary machine and includes data which may be used to evaluate subsequent currency bills.
In one embodiment, the master information comprises thresholds of acceptability which may be used to evaluate subsequent currency bills.
The master information may be copied from the memory of the primary machine to the memory of a plurality of secondary machines.
In either the primary or secondary machine, a stack of test bills is scanned to obtain test data corresponding to the value of a selected attribute in the test bills.
The authenticity of the test bills is determined by comparing the test data associated with a selected attribute of the test bills to the master information corresponding to the selected attribute of the test bills.
In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a software loading system which may be used to copy master information and other data from a primary currency handling machine to a plurality of secondary currency handling machines.
A flash card having a flash memory therein is removably electrically coupled to the resident flash memory of the primary currency handling machine.
Master information is copied from the resident flash memory of the primary currency handling machine to the flash card memory in response to the flash card being electrically coupled to the primary machine.
The flash card retains the master information after being removed from the primary machine.
The flash card may then be removably electrically coupled to a plurality of secondary machines, causing the master information to be copied from the flash card memory to the resident flash memory in the secondary machines.
In accordance with yet another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a system for normalizing master information obtained from the primary currency handling machine and normalizing test data obtained from the secondary machines to account for measurement biases between individual machines