An automated banking machine is operable to cause financial transfers responsive to data read from data bearing records, such as user cards. The machine includes a reader device operative to read data usable to identify a financial account authorized for use in conducting a transaction through the machine. An authorized machine user can use the machine to perform financial transactions, including dispensing cash and making deposits. The machine can receive a deposit in the form of a stack of sheets that includes both currency notes and checks. The machine includes a check/cash discriminator module that includes a magnetic read head, an imager, sensors, and at least one validation device. The module can determine whether the type of sheet removed from a received stack corresponds to a currency note or to a financial check. The module can then analyze the sheet for validity according to its determined sheet type.