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Note Press Cash Register

A till/register designed to flatten notes.
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Paper money gets tatty very quickly. Many people crumple up notes and stuff them in their pockets and wallets. The net result is that a once-crisp, new note can, within a short time, become a limp and crumpled mess. Consequently, notes don’t last very long. But being handed a smooth, flat note by a till-jockey is the kind of occurrence that makes my day. So why not put note presses in cash register drawers?

At present, most registers hold the notes down with a spring-loaded arm that clasps the money along a narrow edge. This is the mechanism that needs modification. If the narrow edge was connected to a flat (heated?) plane -- perpendicular to the arm, parallel to the cash Monet -- and the spring was given more oomph (a technical term), then notes would be ironed while they sit idling in the till.

Upshot #1: smooth, flat notes.
Upshot #2: anally retentive sad sacks like me have their days filled with boundless joy.

my face your, Jan 19 2003

Self Checkouts http://www.sltrib.c.../business/38032.asp
this site has a good picture of a self checkout system [babyhawk, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 05 2004]

[link]






       Microwaving your cash can also help, but I don't suppose its practical to build a microwave oven into the till.
krelnik, Jan 19 2003
  

       Sounds like money laundering
DenholmRicshaw, Jan 19 2003
  

       At first I thought this idea was for a counterfieting(sp) machine. Or, some wierd suggestion that the money supply should be controlled by the retail industry.
ImBack, Jan 19 2003
  

       Yes, but she was right about the cab drivers.   

       // Microwaving your cash can also help //   

       Doing that with UK currency notes which have an embedded metallic thread can be "interesting", especially if you are highly desirous of understanding the true meaning of the phrase "money to burn".   

       Croissant for the idea, anyway. Maybe it would be better to have a slot in the till into which the notes were fed, scanned to check they were not fradulent, then deposited into the monye drawer after cleaning and pressing.
8th of 7, Jan 20 2003
  

       The Chinese give out 'lucky packets' of money at Chinese New Year (BTW, this year it's at the beginning of Feb). If you want to do it right, you need new bills.   

       Most bank branches in China Town, or China if you're passing through, will issue new notes at this time of year.
FloridaManatee, Jan 20 2003
  

       I can't help but envision all sorts of new health problems as whatever gook has accumulated on the notes (or gets sucked into the slot along with the bill) is fried into the atmosphere around the checkout.   

       I prefer soft, wrinkly notes anyway - much easier to separate.
DrCurry, Jan 20 2003
  

       Yeah, in some cases the cashier might be inadvertently freebasing.
bristolz, Jan 20 2003
  

       Cash-registers are designed to make removal of notes to make change as easy and as quick as possible, a big flat piece of metal with an oomphy spring might make the process slow, and the clerks might find themselves ripping notes in half.
Trodden, Jan 21 2003
  

       How would you avoid the corners of a note getting folded in? That would require quite a complex mechanism to avoid, or hand straightening. Therefore, I think this wouldn't work as described.
kropotkin, Jan 21 2003
  

       Here we have a self checkout (see link for picture), which has a section that holds the bills. You slide the bills in and they are slid back out. The machine gets warm enough and the bills are held compactly enough to flatten the bills. I have seen them come out of the machine and they have been quite flattened and neat. Maybe this could be incorporated into all registars. Would also keep people from trying to rob registars since they are not opened all the time.
babyhawk, Jan 16 2004
  
      
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