| 11 January 2010 - (AP) |
| BERLIN--The number of counterfeit euro bank notes withdrawn from circulation rose 8% during the last six months of 2009, with the €20 bill the most widely forged, the European Central Bank said Monday. Some 447,000 fake bills were recovered between July and December, up from 413,000 in the first six months of 2009, the central bank said. The ECB said it couldn't offer an explanation for the rise but said that "the proportion of counterfeits is still very low" in comparison with an increasing number of genuine bank notes in circulation. The number of real bills averaged 12.8 billion in the second half. The increase in counterfeits recovered in the second half wasn't as sharp as in the previous six months, when there was a 17% jump. The total number of counterfeit notes recovered in 2009 was 860,000 -- up from 666,000 the previous year. The forger's favorite euro bill remains the €20 note, which accounted for 47% of the forgeries, the ECB said. It was followed by the €50 note, which accounted for 39%. More than 98% of the counterfeits were recovered in euro-zone countries, with only 1% found in European Union nations that don't use the currency and 0.5% elsewhere. In a separate report Monday, the European Commission said the number of counterfeit euro coins taken out of circulation declined by 12% in 2009 -- dropping to 172,100 from 195,900 a year earlier. The largest-denomination coin,€2, was the most-forged, accounting for three-quarters of the total, or 127,500 coins. The commission, the EU's executive arm, said there are about 15 billion genuine coins in circulation and added that the forgeries aren't "a significant cause of concern for the public." Efforts to remove forged coins from circulation have been increasingly effective in recent years, the commission said. Last year saw higher reports on fake coins seized outside the EU, it added, without offering numbers. It noted that it made cooperation deals with Montenegro and Croatia and stepped up collaboration with Turkey. |
