Bank note testing apparatus

Claim 1

A Bank note testing apparatus comprising a light source (11); means (7, 48) holding the Bank note in a predetermined plane; masking means (6) covering a minor portion of the illuminated surface area of the Bank note and dividing the Bank note into a plurality of test fields, said test fields comprising at least 50 percent of the illuminated surface area of the Bank note, said masking means incluDing opaque, sheet-like elements (3, 5, 8, 15) projecting from the plane of the Bank note in the direction towards the light source; a plurality of large area-type photo-sensitive means (10) having photo-sensitive surfaces located at an angle with respect to the surface plane of the Bank note and to receive reflected light from the test fields of the Bank note, at least one each photo-sensitive means being associated with a test field and responsive, selectively, to reflected light therefrom, said sheet-like elements shielding the photo-sensitive means with respect to reflected light from adjacent fields; and logic circuit means (25-30) logically interconnecting the output from any one of all of said photo-sensitive means with the output from any other one of the photo-sensitive means to provide a composite output signal representative of predetermined logic interrelationship of light values reflected from the test fields of the Bank notes.

Claim 14

A method of testing Bank notes for genuineness comprising the steps of illuminating the Bank note from one side; dividing the Bank note into a plurality of test fields which comprise, overall, at least 50 percent of the plane area of the Bank note, by masking strip-like portions of said Bank note, at least one of said strip-like portions dividing the Bank note in half to cover expected fold lines in used Bank notes; evaluating the reflected light from each test field to form an electrical measured value; and comparing said electrical measured values from any one of all said test fields with electrical measured values of any other one of said said other test fields, and deriving a composite output signal.

Claim 15

A method of testing Bank notes for genuineness comprising the steps of illuminating the Bank note from one side; dividing the Bank note into a plurality of test fields which comprise, overall, at least 50 percent of the plane area of the Bank note, by masking strip-like portions of said Bank note, at least one of said strip-like portions dividing the Bank note in half to cover expected fold lines in used Bank notes; evaluating the reflected light from each test field to form an electrical measured value; and comparing said electrical measured values from any one of all said test fields with electrical measured values of any other one of said said other test fields, and deriving a composite output signal.