(57) An automatic cash handling machine contained within a physically secure housing having the ability to receive and dispense notes or bills and coins, and the ability to receive and dispense non-currency forms of exchange under the control of a computing system which computing controls the creation of at least one secure record of each transaction. No item of money or money's worth can enter or leave the cash handling machine without leaving a readable record showing not only the amounts of money or money's worth received and paid but also the operator's name, the time and date of the transaction and the denomination of bills and coins received and paid out, which record can be related to the physical position of the stored bills.