Abstract: A method and apparatus for use in automatic determination of the denominations of currency bills employs a light scanner to produce pixel signals representative of light pixels from bill surface portions extending across bill sides The pixel signals representative of side and top edges of the printing on the bill surface are found and used to generate a deskewed array of pixels representative of bill corner images that include the bill's denomination numbers Pixel signals indicative of light passed through bill portions enable the detection of a security thread in a bill A hierarchial technique for determining bill denominations is described