Abstract: A sheet element, such as a banknote, having an authenticating device in the form of a strip extending across the sheet and having at least one edge provided with a non-rectilinear portion or portions providing difficulty in copying for the forger and preferably shaped to provide coded information relating to the sheet element. In the case of a banknote, one or both edges of the strip may have wavy-shaped portion or portions, of which characteristics such as amplitude and periodicity can be employed to encode such information as the issuing authority, currency, denomination and serial number. Other aspects of the invention concern a method of verification comprising providing a sheet element as above and sensing the non-rectilinear edge or edges to derive the coded information, and a method of slitting a sheet comprising operating a slitting assembly to slit the sheet along a number of slitting lines into a plurality of strips as aforesaid.

Abstract: A selectively operable interposer mechanism for positioning bars, or the like, in a card selector or coder. Each interposer includes an interposer blade of magnetically responsive material disposed in a longitudinal slot of a nonmagnetic platen. A bar is disposed in each slot and is adapted to be pushed by the interposer blade acting through a rolling disc disposed in the slot between the blade and bar. Disposed directly above each interposer blade is a solenoid coil effective, when engaged, to pivot the associated interposer blade into contact with a permanent magnet which captures the interposer blade. A pusher assembly including the permanent magnet is operative to displace each captured interposer blade and the associated bar longitudinally along their respective slots from a rest position to a displaced position. After a coding or sorting operation, the pusher assembly returns the bars and interposers to their initial rest position.