Significant increase in counterfeit euros discovered in the Netherlands last year

Significantly more counterfeit euro banknotes were intercepted in the Netherlands last year. De Nederlandsche Bank reported that the increase is mainly due to several fraud cases involving large quantities of low-quality counterfeit 200-euro notes.

In total, 24,100 counterfeit euro banknotes were taken out of circulation. This is a 40 percent increase on the lowest number of counterfeit banknotes in history, which happened in 2023. The number of counterfeit Euros banknotes was above 38,000 in 2022. The central bank emphasized that the risk of coming across a counterfeit banknote is still small when compared to the number of real notes in circulation.

Not only were many counterfeit 200 euro notes discovered, but there was also a slight increase in the number of counterfeit 50 euro banknotes found. However, this number was still well below the level of the past ten years.

Globally, more than half a million counterfeit euro banknotes were taken out of circulation last year, numbers provided by the European Central Bank (ECB) show. The institution based in Frankfurt also stated that the chances of coming across a counterfeit banknote are small. The ECB noted that the authenticity of euro banknotes can easily be checked by looking at the watermark and other security features, for example.