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Money counters, such as those offered by Cummins Allison, are an indispensable part of modern business, providing accurate tallies of currency to keep company records up to date. They save time and can increase productivity.

While modern technology has made counting money a lot easier, it wasn't always this way. To show how far money counting techniques have come, let's take a look at the history of the Federal Reserve System, whose job it is to count and record large amounts of money for the U.S.

1900s: Hands-on approach
Just as it is today, the job of a cash counter is to collect cash from deposits or payments, verify the total and record the amount. In addition, the counter had to identify old, damaged, defective or even counterfeit currency and remove it from circulation. This task originally fell to humans who counted the bills by hand and bundled them for transfer to other locations, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia. The process may have involved a special team of counters whose sole job was handling the currency

1920s: Introduction of machines
Machines became part of the currency counting process when the Federal Bill Counter was introduced to assist tellers at the Federal Reserve Bank in Washington, D.C., the source stated. A teller would sort and inspect the cash, then insert it in the machine for counting. The machine would stop when the number of bank notes in one of its four individual compartments was full. A wooden block was then inserted to separate the stacks of bills.

1930s: A team effort
Currency counting continued to use a combination of machines and humans. Sorting of cash by denomination was done by hand. Damaged or unsuitable money was sent back to the Federal Reserve District that issued it and counterfeit dollars were given to the Secret Service.

1960s: Bigger and better
Machines and humans continued to work together to count cash. The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia stated that it was common practice for tellers to start their careers by counting 15 stacks of dollar bills as a sort of warm-up counting exercise. As they became more adept at counting, they would be permitted to count larger denominations. Still, the bank said of the 55 currency counters employed by the facility, only a few were deemed qualified to count the $50 and $100 bills. But the sensitive touch and feel of human hands was required to determine which bills were authentic and which were counterfeit. Meanwhile the Federal Bill Counter, which had changed little over the years, remained a key piece of technology.

1970s:  Strap sorting
As they were asked to handle larger amounts of currency, Federal Reserve Bank tellers began to strap sort $1 and $20 bills and collect them in bundles of 100. These were visually inspected and weighed against a counterweight to verify their authenticity that they were authentic notes. However the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia stated that this method was not precise - some notes that should have been destroyed were not and some that should not have been were ruled unfit.

1990s and 2000s: State of the art
As the '90s began, the banks began to use the new technology available to count currency with greater speed and accuracy. Sensors examine each bill for durability, authenticity and denomination and completes the task in seconds. They could also separate damaged or suspicious bills and save them for further examination. By 2000, counting machines at the Federal Reserve Banks were massive machines that processed more than 800,000 notes per day. A counting room could have several of these machines.

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York said that in the process of counting cash, about one-third of all notes it receives are not fit for re-circulation and are destroyed. The $1 bill, which the bank says gets the most use, lasts less than six years while a $100 bill may last 14 years.

While not every business may need to count as many bills as the Federal Reserve does, it never hurts to embrace advanced technology that can make counting easier than ever. Money counters such as the Cummins Allison JetScan iFX i200 currency counter and check scanning device can deliver fast, accurate totals in seconds, processing up to 1,200 mixed bills per second. Dual configurable pockets that hold up to 200 bills each means that modern machines such as iFX i200 can work faster to reduce overtime costs.

In addition, devices such as the iFX i200 have advanced counterfeit detection, with software that can be upgraded to provide up-to-the-minute protection as new key features become available. Along with the ability to process checks, it's one of the fastest, fully functional currency counting devices available.