PURPOSE: To automatically adjust the position of a paper sheet separating member in accordance with a detecting means, by providing a means for adjusting the movement of the paper separating member to and from a paper pay-out roller and a means for detecting the pay-out condition of paper sheets.

CONSTITUTION: A CPU 17 drives a motor M1 to pay out bank notes, and allows memory 18, 19, 20 to store data detected by a bank note detecting sensor S1 while it checks the cycle numbers of overlapping feed and non-feed. When the cycle number exceeds a reference value, an adjusting motor M2 is driven to adjust the position of a gate roller 10. A drive signal, one pulse for the rightward direction upon over lapping or one pulse for the leftward direction upon non-feed, is delivered to the motor M2 to move an arm 12 up and down in order to automatically adjust the overlapping amount between the gate roller 10 and the pay-out roller 8. An adjusting screw 14 has a right-handed thread, so that the rightwise rotation of the screw 14 causes the gate roller 10 to ascend so that the overlapping amount increases, thereby it is possible to prevent the overlapping feed.