A more secure way to handle money

This article was taken from the Venner Shipley Newsletter edition 21

Money Controls, the world leader in money-handling solutions, has launched a new, secure system for the one-way transportation of banknotes from the point of sale to the count centre, with full audit ability and no need for back-office counting.

Called ‘Tulip,’ this revolutionary approach to cash handling provides full visibility of cash at all points in the chain, with no need for cash counting, considerably reducing labour costs, and eliminating opportunities for theft throughout the process. Not surprisingly, this advanced product is well protected by multiple worldwide patents and Money Controls’ patent attorneys, Venner Shipley, have been involved in the protection of the development process right from the beginning.

Tulip has been developed to meet the need to increase the efficiency and security and decrease the cost of the present labour-intensive process of checking and re-checking bank-notes in their journey from the till to the final cash-counting process. The development process has resulted in at least seven patents covering each element of this unique system and Venner Shipley’s input has been crucial in providing the right level of protection.

“Venner Shipley has helped us in the direction of our product development,” says Money Controls’ Technical Director, Mike Bell, “avoiding pitfalls and dead ends along the way. Their quick grasp of the technology, their fast response and clear thinking has been of great value to us.”

Cash taken at the point-of-sale is fed directly into Tulip, where it is identified, validated and counted. The cash is stacked into a sandwich-box style disposable container, which is suitable for recycling. Inside each plastic cash box is a re-usable RFID card, on which is recorded each bill, complete with a transaction history.

At the end of the trading day, or when Tulip indicates that the cash box is full, the operator inserts a plastic lid that is thermally sealed onto the container before it can be removed, giving clear indication of any subsequent tampering.

The RFID card can be read by a suitable reader at any point in transit from the POS through to cash-counting where it is finally opened, the plastic box is sent for recycling and the RFID card is returned.

Patents cover all aspects of Tulip - the cash-box itself, the process of welding the lid, the use of the RFID tag as a recoverable memory device, several design aspects of the bill acceptor and bar-code reader, including its full bill scanning device, the transaction recording and the unloading process.

“We expect great things from Tulip,” concludes Mike Bell, “and have found that dealing with Venner Shipley has been a rewarding and creative process that has been very supportive throughout.”

01 May 2007

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