Although much of the retail world revolves around cashless transactions, a segment of the population still prefers using paper bills and jingly coins.

To accommodate them, Malvern-based Crane Payment Innovations is augmenting the automated bill acceptor — those machine payment systems that accept bills through a small slot after consumers flatten them. A staff report from Central Banking doled out the details.

The company makes bill acceptors that are used worldwide, in more than 100 countries.

Robert Morrow, an expert in point-of-sale cash validation with Crane Payment Innovations, noted that automated bill acceptors are no longer strictly confined to car washes and vending machines. Instead, they are now integral to many of the largest retailers around the world.

Modern payment terminals can recognize and accept all denominations of banknotes without any human oversight, including U.S. dollars and the euro. Many of them are capable of issuing change using lower-denomination banknotes received from prior transactions.

The terminals can also recognize nearly all genuine banknotes, no matter their condition, and screen diligently for counterfeit.

These advanced capabilities are theorized to be part of the explanation behind increasing the growth of cash use during the pandemic.

Read more about Crane Payment Innovations in Central Banking.