A bill recognizing and counting apparatus includes a feeding and transporting mechanism; a line sensor to scan an image of the bills; a denomination determination table in which denomination recognition data is registered for at least one currency; a denomination recognizing unit that recognizes a denomination of the currency by referring to the table; a processing-mode switching unit that switches between a denomination mode and a different currency recognition mode; a different-currency recognizing unit that compares a difference in size between a first bill and each bill of a second bill and thereafter with an allowable range, and recognizes whether the each bill of the second bill and thereafter is of the same denomination as the first bill; and a control unit that guides the bill being determined as a different denomination to a rejecting unit or stops the feeding and transporting mechanism.