The corona restrictions in retail and gastronomy have further depressed the counterfeit money numbers in the first half of 2021.
The number of flowers seized fell both in Germany and in Europe.
The Deutsche Bundesbank announced this on Friday in Frankfurt.
The amount of damage also decreased.
Accordingly, the police, retailers and banks in Germany withdrew 21,356 counterfeit euro banknotes from circulation in Germany in the first six months of the year.
That was 13 percent less than in the second half of 2020 (24 633).
The damage shrank from then a good 1.2 million euros by 16 percent to just over 1 million euros.
Throughout Europe, the euro central banks registered a total of 167,000 counterfeit euro banknotes with a total value of 8 million euros in the first half of 2021.
The downward trend observed since the second half of 2019 thus continued.
According to the European Central Bank (ECB), there were 240,000 false bills in the first half of 2020, and 220,000 in the second half of 2020.
The damage caused by counterfeit money for the whole of Europe totaled 21.5 million euros in 2020.
"Movie Money" from the Internet
"The number of counterfeit money has decreased significantly," said Bundesbank board member Johannes Beermann: "The reason for this was the corona restrictions. The consumption options were severely limited, especially in those areas in which cash plays an important role. "
With new security features, the monetary authorities have made the European common currency more forgery-proof in recent years. For some time now, criminals have been relying more and more on counterfeit banknotes, which are offered on the Internet as “movie money” or “prop copy” as play money or film props. These drove the number of flowers up, especially on the 10-euro note and the 20-euro note. With a share of around 41 percent of the total number of forgeries in Germany, the 20-euro note overtook the fifties in the first half of 2021.