A strike against a major counterfeiting workshop, improved security features and corona restrictions have made it difficult for counterfeiters to do business in the first half of 2022.

Police, retailers and banks withdrew 19,789 counterfeit euro banknotes, the Bundesbank announced on Friday.

That was 3.9 percent less than in the second half of 2021 and the lowest value since the second half of 2013 with 19,350 flowers at that time.

"The trend in counterfeit money has been declining since 2016," said Bundesbank board member Johannes Beermann in Frankfurt.

"This is thanks to the high-quality security features on the banknotes and the Bundesbank's information campaigns and training courses, but also to the good cooperation with the law enforcement authorities," explained Beermann.

In July 2021, for example, officials raided a large counterfeiting workshop in Cologne.

According to the information, they secured 600 ready-made 20-euro flowers and material for more than 10,000 other counterfeits.

After this strike against criminals, the number of 20-euro flowers in Germany fell significantly by 16.4 percent in the first six months of 2022 compared to the second half of 2021.

Counterfeiters cause more damage

The financial damage caused by counterfeit euro notes increased in the first half of the current year, however, against the long-term trend compared to the second half of 2021 by around 11 percent to 991,690 euros.

This was mainly due to the fact that larger denominations such as counterfeit hundreds and two hundred were withdrawn from circulation.

However, the most popular among criminals are still the 20 and 50 euro banknotes, which together account for 77 percent of counterfeits.

The probability of getting a flower turned on is very small.

According to the Bundesbank, there were five counterfeit banknotes per 10,000 inhabitants in Germany in the first half of the year.

Across Europe there were ten counterfeits for every 10,000 inhabitants.

Just looking is enough

For some time now, criminals have been increasingly using counterfeit banknotes, which are offered on the Internet under the terms "Movie Money" or "Prop copy" as play money or film props.

The proportion of "Movie Money" in the flowers seized in Germany fell slightly in the first half of the year.

At a good 20 percent, it is still high.

"You can tell these banknotes are counterfeit just by looking at them," emphasized Beermann.

The front of such bills says "Movie Money" and the back says "Prop copy".

According to Beermann, how the lifting of the corona restrictions this spring will affect the number of counterfeit money is likely to become apparent in the second half of 2022.

Because of the restrictions in the pandemic, criminals found it more difficult to sell their imitations, for example at Christmas markets or folk festivals, where bills and coins are usually used to pay.

According to the latest data from the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA), the number of crimes involving counterfeit money in Germany has continued to fall during the corona pandemic.

Last year, the authority counted 38,234 counterfeit money offences.

That was 16.7 percent less than a year earlier.

The BKA reported that the downward trend, which has been declining for years, has continued.

Since 2020, cases involving counterfeit coins are no longer included in these overall statistics.

According to police estimates, more than half of the counterfeit money found in Germany is now being sold online, for example via encrypted messenger services or on the Darknet.

With new security features, the euro currency guardians have made the common currency more counterfeit-proof in recent years.

The next step has already been taken: the European Central Bank (ECB) wants to fine-tune the design of a new euro generation in a multi-stage process.

The central bank wants to involve the people in the currency area comprehensively, and in 2024 the Governing Council of the ECB should then decide on the production of new notes and when they could be distributed to the people.

Beermann described the participation of the citizens as a "peace project with great symbolic power, in which the citizens can identify themselves with the banknotes".