The invention relates. to a cassette in particular for temporary storing against theft of articles of monetary value such as banknotes and currency-notes, cheques and the like comprising a rectangular casing having a lockable cover and a slot for disposing said articles into the casing.

Such a cassette is known in general.

In offices with spaces open to public where said articles of monetary value circulate it is desired to limit its quantity so that robbery is less attractive respectively its results are kept within bounds. To attain this already a plurality of systems are designed and brought into practice. Said systems comprise a pneumatic dispatch system between the cash-desks and a protected central cash-desk, the so-called skimming, and the use of cassettes of the type indicated above.

Said pneumatic dispatch system is expensive in installation, committed to fixed locations for the cash-desks and so is hardly flexible. Moreover, the wait for the buyers, who want to settle is long and the dedication of the personnel is inefficient.

The so-called skimming takes place by counting the surplus of articles of monetary value at the cash-desk and to hand it over to the acting manager. Because the cash-desk is closed during said skimming this affects adversely a fluent passing of the buyers, whereas undesired transfer occurs during the hours of opening.

To remove said objections a cassette of above mentioned type is provided in which the surplus of articles of monetary value may be stored till the end of the hours of opening. After work-time the cassette is delivered by the cashier to the central cash-desk (or to an other protected location), is opened there and the contents is counted. No transfer takes place during the hours of opening and the public is not hindered. The disadvantage of said known cassette is that no secure locking for it is present at the cash-desk and that the cassette becomes choked up if bank-notes and the like that are not smooth are inserted. Further articles cannot be inserted anymore. In that case said cassette has to be replaced during the hours of opening and that increases the risk of theft. In order to obviate this the bank-notes have to be flattened out first which is inconvenient and after inserting the note this has to be transported in the cassette by means of a brace that has to be operated from the outside. The known cassette is not suitable for receiving coins, does not prevent the unauthorized taking out of notes and is difficult to remove from the surrounding casing.

The invention has the object to obviate the above- mentioned disadvantages.

According to the invention this object is achieved in that the casing comprises means for detachable positioning it on a support, means for releasable locking the casing on said support and means for the reciprocal pivoting of a pressing plate about the axis of a shaft supported on the housing and connected to the pressing plate. By said features the cassette may be readily positioned, locked against theft and may be detached again while extremely more articles of monetary value may be inserted therein because by means of the pressing plate said articles are compacted to a smaller volume.

Preferably the embodiment is such that the means for detachable positioning comprise two parallel guides provided on the support, with each of which an edge on the casing may engage. Such a construction is known per se for slidingly mounting a drawer for example on the underside of a table-top.

In order to prevent that the housing simply can be drawn out it is preferred that the releasable locking comprises a lockable pin, provided on the support and engaging the casing in the locked condition.

A simple and reliable locking is obtained in that the pin may engage an aperture in the casing.

In order to hide the cassette from view as much as possible, preferably said aperture is elongated and extends parallel to said guides. So, the cassette in the locked condition may be pushed backwards along the guides in which condition it remains entirely within the circumference of the support and may be pulled frontwards, in which position said slot is free for inserting said articles into the cassette.

For said pivoting of the pressing plate it is preferred that the shaft supported in the casing extends beyond the casing at at least one side and is provided with a wing fixed at the end of the shaft protruding from the casing. By rotating the wing manually the compressing of the material present in the casing may be carried out in a simple way. Preferably the implementation is such that the pressing plate is in conformity with the form of the cross-section of the casing in which the sides of the plate are shorter than the correspnding sides of said cross-section. Jamming of the plate is prevented by said feature. A simple embodiment is obtained in that the pressing plate respectively said shaft is provided with a reset spring.

In order to use the space in the casing as best as possible it is preferred that of the lockable cover, at least two opposing edges are flanged in which flanged edges said shaft is rotatably supported. Herein, the shaft, the reset spring and the pressing plate may be housed within the flanged edges of the cover.

With reference to the drawing in which an embodiment of the cassette according to the invention is illustrated the invention will be disclosed in detail hereafter.

• Fig. 1 shows in a perspective view a closed cassette.
• Fig. 2 shows in a perspective view the cassette in open condition.
• Fig. 3 shows the mounting of the cassette on the lower side of a table-top or the like.

The cassette comprises a casing 1 of rectangular shape having two side walls 2 and 3, a top wall 4, a bottom wall 5 and a rear wall 6. The front side of the casing may be closed by a cover 7 connected pivotably near its upper edge 8 to the side walls 2 and 3 through a pivot pin 9. The top wall 4 is shorter by which a slot 10 is formed in the top side of the cassette. Said slot 10 serves as access to the interior of the cassette and is provided with strips 11 and 12 extending to the interior of the casing, of which strips the strip 11 extends slantingly downwards from the rear slot edge 13 to the front side of the casing under an angle of 40° and the strip 12 extending slantingly downwards from the front slot edge 14 to the rear side of the casing under an angle of 30°. The width of the strip 11 is larger than that of the strip 12 so that between the strips a space 14a remains for passing the articles to be stored. As a result of said strips the interior of the casing is not accessable manually nor by means of hooks or the like, so that the articles cannot be taken out of the casing along this way. Also thereby, it is practically impossible to take out articles of the casing by reversing it.

The top wall 4 extends beyond the walls 2 and 3 and forms edges 15 and 16 which, as appears from fig. 3, may hook behind and slide along guides 17, for example provided on the underside of a table-top 18. The width of the edge 16 is larger than that of the edge 15 so that in the edge 16 outside of the casing a guide slot 19 may be provided in which a pin 20 may be engaged. The pin 20 represents the locking part of the locking means 21 to be opened and closed by a key (as indicated in fig. 3 the locking means 21 is closed and the pin 20 extends into the slot 19). For passing the locking means 21 in the guiding 17 a corresponding aperture 22 is provided.

The cover 7 is flanged along its longitudinal edges resulting in two strips 23 in each of which the free end of the cover 7 an aperture 24 is provided for supporting a shaft 25. About said shaft 25 a spiral spring 26 is provided of which one end 27 abuts the inner side of the cover 7 and the other end (not visible) is fixed with the bolt 28 on the pressing plate 29. To the shaft 25 a vane 30 is fixedly connected at the outer side of the edge 23. Between the edges 23 a pressing plate 29 is fixedly connected to the shaft 25. By 32 a usual cover locking device is indicated.

The apparatus according to the invention is used as follows:

• The casing 1 is closed by the cover by means of a cover locking device 32. Subsequently the edges 15 and 16 of the casing are hooked behind the guide 17 provided at the underside of the table-top 18. When the casing is pushed sufficiently on the guide 17 the locking means 21 is pushed inwardly so that the pin 20 extends through the aperture 19 in the top wall. In this position the locking means is locked (eventually by rotating a corresponding key being in possession of the acting manager). If should be introduced the casing is pulled to the front until the pin 20 abuts the rear end of the slot 19. Thereby, the aperture 10 comes free and banknotes and the like may be inserted through the slot into the casing. If obstruction is experienced in inserting the vane 30 is actuated by which the pressing plate is positioned on the top side of the banknotes and these are compacted to a smaller volume. In releasing the vane the pressing plate returns to its initial position. If this insertion is carried out a number of times and the casing is maximally filled up respectively after the end of the working period of the cashier the locking means 2 is opened with a key by which the pin 20 is withdrawn from the slot 19. Then, the cassette may be pulled from the guide 17 and be substituted by an other. Then, the removed cassette may be opened in a safe location.

For transporting the cassette it is provided with a hand grip 33 at a suitable place.

It will be apparent that with the invention a simple and reliable cassette is provided that is protected against theft.

Further it will be apparent that the cassette may also be locked on other surfaces than the underside of for example a table-top. Examples are the upper side of a table-top or the like in which the strips 15 and 16 are provided on the bottom wall 5 of the cassette, a vertical surface, in which said strips 15 and 16 are provided on a corresponding side wall of the casing. In this case the guides 17 are mounted on said upper side respectively on said side wall.