COUNTING STACKED DOCUMENTS

The process for treating stacks formed of a predetermined number of planar substrates, such as securities, banknotes, checks and other similar documents, said securities being formed by prints on said substrates arranged in matrix-form in lines and columns, comprises the steps of (a) displacing the stack under a cutting device; (b) cutting a strip of the stack with cutting means; (c) evacuating the cut strip for liberating the front side of the stack which is under the cutting means; (d) taking an image of the front side of the stack; (e) counting the number of substrate in the stack by analyzing the image taken; (f) resuming the process at step (a) until all strips of a stack have been cut and starting with another stack.