50 euros – one of the favorite banknotes of counterfeiters
According to Russkaya Germaniya, in the fourteenth year of the single currency's existence, the European Central Bank counted at least 899,000 counterfeit banknotes – and these are only those that were withdrawn from circulation. About 11 percent of this substantial number of counterfeits – 95,357 pieces – were seized in Germany, a figure also a record since 2002.
Carl-Ludwig Thiele, President of the Executive Board of the Deutsche Bundesbank, is concerned about emerging trends: 'The growth rate of counterfeit money gives cause for thought.' Compared to the previous reporting period, in 2015, 51 percent more counterfeits were withdrawn from circulation in Germany. The volume of material damage caused by counterfeiters increased from 3.3 to 4.4 million euros. In 2004 and 2005, the amounts of damage were higher – 6.1 and 4.9 million euros, as counterfeiters at that time preferred to forge larger denomination notes of 100 and 200 euros, while now their favorite banknotes are becoming 20 and 50 euros.
Worldwide, the damage caused by counterfeit European banknotes in 2015 is estimated at 39 million euros. The European Central Bank is doing its best to counter fraudsters by gradually changing the design of banknotes and each time increasing their security features. Following the new 'five' and 'ten' notes, a new 'twenty' was introduced into circulation in autumn 2015. The appearance of a new 50-euro banknote will have to wait until 2017, later to be followed by new 100 and 200 euro notes.
Counterfeiters nowadays prefer smaller denominations: the 20-euro note along with the 'fifty' are forged most often. Four out of five counterfeit banknotes entering circulation in Germany are of these denominations, with the former accounting for 40 percent of Germany's counterfeit money turnover, and the latter for 49 percent. Worldwide, the share of 20-euro notes among counterfeit euros in 2015 reached 51 percent.
Despite the impressive data on the increase in the number of counterfeit banknotes, the probability of encountering them for an average German resident remains low. The European Central Bank provides the following information on this matter: 'In relation to the growing number of genuine banknotes in circulation – in the second half of 2015 there were over 18 billion – the number of counterfeits remains quite low.' Purely mathematically, last year there were 27 counterfeit notes per ten thousand Europeans, and only twelve per ten thousand residents of Germany.
However, Europeans themselves cannot be exempted from some blame for abetting counterfeiters, as they resist the efforts of bankers and police to spare us from encountering fake money. We often let our guard down and make life easier even for the clumsiest fraudsters. Deception, like stupidity, knows no bounds: there exist – at least in the archive of the Federal Central Bank – banknotes of 30 and 300 euros. There are officially known cases of successful attempts to pay with such 'money' in stores: criminals managed to pass off even these banknotes, and they ended up at banks directly from the affected retail chains.