The European Central Bank have released their latest statistics on the detection of forged or counterfeit EURO banknotes which shows a slight increase from this time last year, but also a slight decrease from the second half of 2013. The total number of banknotes detected was reported at 331,000 representing value of almost 15 million EURO.
Despite the introduction of the new €5 in 2013, the smallest note was counterfeited with 3,972 notes detected – though this denomination usually sees very small numbers of counterfeited examples. The European Central Bank will be issuing a new €10 note in the revised series of EURO notes on the 23rd September throughout the EURO-zone, the “Europa” series was introduced in May 2013 with the €5. The next note scheduled after the €10 will be the €20 which was by individual numbers, the most counterfeited note with almost 154,000 notes detected. The €50 note was the second most counterfeited note with 114,857 notes being handed into authorities.
The ECB also reported that 98% of the counterfeit notes were found in euro area countries, 1.9% were found in EU Member States outside the euro area and 0.1% were found in other parts of the world. Overall, the number of counterfeits remained very low compared with the number of genuine banknotes in circulation during that period – over 16 billion notes.
| Denomination | €5 | €10 | €20 | €50 | €100 | €200 | €500 |
| Number of notes | 3,972 | 15,226 | 153,915 | 114,857 | 36,079 | 4,303 | 2,648 |
| Represented value in € | 19,860 | 152,260 | 3,078,300 | 5,742,850 | 3,607,900 | 860,600 | 1,324,000 |
| Percentage breakdown | 1.2% | 4.6% | 46.5% | 34.7% | 10.9% | 1.3% | 0.8% |
Despite these low numbers, the members of the Eurosystem – i.e. the European Central Bank (ECB) and the 18 national central banks of the euro area – advise people to pay attention to the notes they receive. Genuine notes can be easily recognized using the simple “feel, look and tilt” method described on the euro pages of the ECB’s website and the websites of the Eurosystem national central banks. If a person receives a suspect banknote, he/she should compare it directly with one that is known to be genuine. If those suspicions are confirmed, the person should contact either the police or – depending on national practice – the respective national central bank regardless of whether you reside in Europe or elsewhere.
The Eurosystem has a duty to safeguard the integrity of euro banknotes, so it offers guidance on how to distinguish between genuine and counterfeit notes, and helps professional cash handlers ensure that banknote handling and processing machines can reliably identify and withdraw counterfeits from circulation. For more information on the current EURO banknotes including the “Europa” series, please visit the website of the European Central Bank at: www.ecb.europa.eu Information is offered in all of the official European languages within the European Union.
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