Earlier this year, Wells Fargo rolled out a new generation of ATMs. Previously, to make cash or check deposits, you put the bills and checks into a supplied envelope, told the ATM how much you were depositing, then inserted the envelope. These new ATMs will accept loose stacks of bills and checks.

Last month I made a cash deposit. I put the stack of bills into the slot, it scanned each one, and (correctly) counted the total value of the cash. It was nice, but I was only mildly impressed. Bill scanning technology has been around for a long time and is pretty refined.

Today I deposited a check. (That doesn’t happen often anymore, so it had been awhile.) Again, I pressed the “deposit” button the screen and inserted the check. It scanned the check, figured out the check number and amount, and verified the amount to me. It even printed a small version of the scanned image on the receipt, with the check’s bank account number removed from the image. Okay, now I’m impressed.