Around the World – Counterfeiting Update

A new periodic series of articles in Currency News™ will summarise information on counterfeit currency around the world, starting in this issue with the Czech Republic, Ghana, Kosovo and the Philippines.

Steep rise in Czech Republic

The Czech National Bank (CNB) identified 3,539 Czech banknotes and coins worth CZK 5.648 million as counterfeit in 2023, a steep rise of 2,419 over 2022.

Of the 2,135 Czech banknotes worth CZK 5.6 million identified as counterfeit in 2023, 57% were the 2,000 koruna note, followed by the 5,000 koruna (28%() and 1,000 koruna (9%).

CNB experts gave 80% of the counterfeit banknotes a grade of 4 on a five-point security scale (similar to the marking system in Czech schools, with a grade of 5 being the worst). These counterfeits either had no security features or only unskilled imitations of them. In second place were grade 5 banknotes, ie. banknotes whose reverse side and face side orientation were wrong, monochrome banknotes and one-sided banknotes. In 2023, the CNB seized a total of 395 of these banknotes.