The Bundesbank was able to report an extraordinary record on Friday: fewer banknotes were counterfeited last year.

The resulting damage fell to its lowest level in almost 20 years.

As Bundesbank board member Johannes Beermann explained, the number of flowers discovered in Germany fell by 28.6 percent to 42,000 compared to the previous year.

The nominal value of the banknotes seized fell by 34.5 percent to 1.9 million euros.

This is the lowest level since the introduction of euro cash in 2002. The €20 and €50 banknotes, which together account for 78 percent of counterfeits, continue to be popular with criminals.

Christian Siedenbiedel

Editor in Business.

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Beermann blamed the development primarily on the fact that there were fewer opportunities to pay in cash during the pandemic and thus to put counterfeit banknotes into circulation.

He specifically mentioned the unusual fairs and Christmas markets.

Of course, it is also conceivable that the increased use of card payments in supermarkets has tended to reduce counterfeit money.

Of course, it cannot be completely ruled out that the authorities carried out fewer controls, at least in some phases of the pandemic.

In return, the number of counterfeit vaccination cards has apparently increased. According to the Federal Criminal Police Office, more than 15,000 cases were investigated in Germany in 2021. A single case was recently made public in France involving 62,000 falsified vaccination certificates. The police headquarters for the state of Brandenburg reports that the number of fake vaccination cards in his training has increased month by month: In January, March and April 2021 there was only one case each - in December there were 155 cases, and 437 in the year as a whole.

The State Criminal Police Offices report largely unanimously that the counterfeiters and the forgers of vaccination cards are different groups of perpetrators. Among the counterfeiters there are also rather simple natures who try to imitate euro banknotes with a color copier. But others are very professional and well organized. The falsifiers of vaccination certificates are not all the same, but often lone perpetrators who have falsified other things in the past, but not necessarily things that are as complicated as banknotes. Some of these perpetrators probably come from the environment of the opponents of vaccination.

They are aware of a case in Germany in which a group of perpetrators was caught with both counterfeit banknotes and counterfeit vaccination certificates, said a spokeswoman for the State Criminal Police Office in Thuringia. All state criminal investigation offices pointed out that it was much easier to counterfeit vaccination cards than banknotes. Maybe that's why the counterfeiters wouldn't bother with it.

"Vaccination passports are very easy to forge due to their poor security features, so that even less professionalized people with the necessary criminal energy become counterfeiters," said the LKA Thuringia. Counterfeiting banknotes, on the other hand, requires "a significant amount of background knowledge and technical expertise," emphasized a spokesman for the LKA Baden-Württemberg. "Professional counterfeiters will not deal with vaccination cards," said a spokesman for the LKA Bavaria. The yellow booklets are available in every pharmacy anyway and have practically no security features. What has to be counterfeited are the so-called batch stickers for each vaccination and the stamps. That requires "no great expertise," said a spokeswoman for the LKA Lower Saxony.

It cannot be ruled out that the vaccination certificates could also become a field of activity for organized crime, said the state criminal investigation offices.

At least so far there are no signs of this in Germany.