Depository for receiving, imprinting and storing deposited articles of

Abstract

A depository for receiving, imprinting and storing deposited articles of varying thickness including a housing having a slot in the front thereof through which articles of variable thickness are inserted, a vault also located within the housing into which articles inserted through the housing slot are ultimately transferred for storage, and a movable tube for temporarily storing an article inserted therein through the housing slot while the same is imprinted with a date of deposit or the like and thereafter transferring the imprinted article to the vault. The tube is movable between a first, article-receiving position in which an article receiving end communicates with the housing slot to permit an inserted article to be received within the tube; a second, article-discharge position in which the article stored in the tube is discharged under the force of gravity into the vault via an opening in the other end of the tube; and third, article-imprinting positions variably located intermediate the first and second positions in which the articles of varying thickness in the tube are imprinted by a printer mounted on the tube, which printer moves into imprinting relationship with the temporarily stored article as an incident to movement of the tube between the first, article-receiving position and the second, article-discharge position. The slot in the housing is dimensioned such that it is smaller than the tube in which the inserted articles are temporarily stored to effect imprinting, to prevent insertion into the tube of an article which, with respect to the tube, is oversized and which could lodge in the tube and fail to be discharged into the vault under the force of gravity when the tube is placed in its article-discharge position.