Brussels, 16/01/2006 (Agence Europe) - Last week, the European Central Bank (ECB) revealed that a total of 286,000 counterfeit notes were removed from circulation in the second half of 2005, a figure in line with six-monthly averages over the last three years. There are 10.4 billion notes in circulation. The 50 euro note, with 56% of the total forgeries, remains the main counterfeit denomination, followed by the 20 euro note, which has risen to 28% of total forgeries. Then comes the 10 euro note, with 10% of total forgeries, the 100 euro note, with 5%, the 200 and 500 euro notes, each with 2% and the 5 euro notes, with 1%. 97% of the notes removed from circulation were from the euro zone.
Although still small-scale, counterfeiting of euro coins increased in 2005, stated the ECB. Around 96,000 counterfeit coins were removed from circulation over the course of the year, from a total circulation of 63 billion coins. This figure, however, is lower than the overall number of counterfeit coins produced in the former coinages before the introduction of the euro. With almost 80,000 counterfeits detected in 2005, the 2 euro coin is the one most counterfeited, followed by the one euro and then the 50 cent coins. German national coins were the ones most often counterfeited, ahead of French, Spanish, Belgian, Italian, Austrian, Dutch, Irish, Greek and Luxemburg coinage. Three counterfeiting works, in Hungary, Poland and Bulgaria, were dismantled in 2005.