More and More False Euros

The 200 euro bills are not actually very well known and are not used often. In many gas stations and in many retail shops, they are completely rejected. Even more frequently, bills of 500 euros are used. For this reason special care should be taken when strangers pay large flocks of such bills.

And exactly with bills of 200 euros and 500 euros, there has been an addition of money to Germany in the first half of this year. The damage caused by 2.9m euros in just six months has exceeded last year's value (2.7m euros), Bundesbank reported.

A record number of counterfeit euros

According to data from Bundesbank, German police, retail vendors and banks withdrew 26.690 forged bank notes between January and June 2023. The last time a larger number of counterfeit money was recorded was in the first half of 2020, when 34.18 forged bank notes were seized in circulation.

The counterfeiting of the two most valuable bills has increased significantly compared to the second half of 2022. In the case of 200 euro bills in the total number of counterfeiting, there is a 15 percent increase after nine percent in the previous six months. While the number of counterfeit bills, 500 euros in the same period almost fourfold, from 554 to 2,178 pieces. Thus, purple bills, which the central banks of the Eurosystem have not printed since the beginning of 2019, have marked an apparent increase in counterfeiting.

“I would not talk about any tendency at this moment,” said Bundesbank board member Burkhard Balz in a statement to news agency dpa. “Anyway, we follow these phenomena very carefully”.

According to data from Bundesbank, the 50-euro banknote is still the single most counterfeit banknote, making up almost 40 percent of all money counterfeits in Germany. And 20 percent of counterfeiting in the first half of the year was a $20 bill.

False bills to buy luxury goods

The quality of the bills 200 and 500 euros, the Bundesbank experts stress, is not good enough. They look like simple bills “Movie Money” or “Prop copy” that can be found online as money for games or film requisitions, Balz says. According to police, jewelry, gold, luxurious clocks, and expensive cars have been paid in some cases with such bills.

Bundesbank board member Balz sees no reason for concern because the figures are still relatively low: “Despite the increase in the number of these bills by about ten percent, the situation with counterfeiting in essence has not changed much”.

According to him, there is still a low risk in Germany when it comes to the fraud of false bills. Seen by statistical data, in the first half of this year, only six forged banknotes for 10,000 inhabitants have been registered.

Look out!

False bills won't be exchanged. That is why Bundesbank recommends checking bills and a special care with them. For example, pieces of printed image can be felt under their fingers on the front of their bills. Hollogram elements change. It is also recommended to compare a suspicious bill to one that is undoubtedly original and always pay attention to some safety elements.

Modern security characteristics of the new set of bills

Those responsible for the euro currency are already working on new security features to make it even more difficult for criminals to counterfeit bills. European Central Bank Executive Board member (ECB) Fabio Panetta said in an interview at the end of May: “We are working on the release of a new set of high-tech bills to prevent counterfeiting”.

During the creation of the new set of bills, the ECB allows European citizens to say their word for redefining the bills: Europeans can say their word by the end of August of this year. For example: European culture, birds, rivers, or hands can be solved. However, a few more years will pass until these bills reach the hands of the citizens. /dw