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More Sour Notes in the Eurozone
For a while, the euro seemed to have counterfeiters stumped. In the year after the new European currency was officially launched in January, 2002, only 167,000 phony bills were found in circulation -- down dramatically from the 650,000 found in the 12 eurozone countries during 2001. The euroâs state-of-the-art security features, including holograms and color-shifting ink, made forgery more difficult than ever [see BW Online, 12/3/03, "Happy Birthday Dear Euro"]. Alas, the crooks now seem to be catching on. The European Central Bank [ECB] says more than 230,000 fake bills were found in circulation during the first half of 2003 alone. Most experts predict the second-half numbers will be even higher. In fact, some experts fear that faking of the euro will exceed the combined total counterfeiting of the currencies that the euro replaced in a few years. Thatâs because forgers rarely bothered with relatively weak and thinly circulated European currencies such as the Portuguese escudo and Greek drachma. "The euro represents a greater prize than many of the other former currencies," says Allister McCallum, head of the ECBâs counterfeit analysis center. Posted by: Jarhead 2003-12-05 |
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