An intermittent drive mechanism for an encoding device is driven by a continuously rotating drive source. First and second Geneva drive discs are each rotated through a sequence of rotated rapid incremental displacements to a plurality of positions each of which are utilized for providing coded information. The first Geneva drive disc is rotated by a drive means which is moved to a high energy level condition by the drive source and permitted to rapidly discharge. A second drive means is connected to the first disc and is moved to a high energy level condition by rotation of the first disc and permitted to discharge to rapidly drive the second disc.