Frankfurt --
Counterfeiters have brought 2009 in Germany significantly more flowers in circulation than in the previous year.
The number of fraud increased 28 percent, as the German Bundesbank announced on Monday in Frankfurt.
Washing test
Feel Test
View test
Tilt test
Genuine euro notes survive a round in the washing machine completely unscathed. But there are easier ways to "flower" of counterfeit currency to be distinguished.
The banknotes have several security features. The German Bundesbank is recommended to consider always several of them. The rule of thumb is: "touch, sight, and tilt.
Through the so-called intaglio on the front part of the bills stand out from the surface and are palpable. These are the abbreviations of the European Central Bank at the top (BCE, ECB, EZB, EKT, EKP), the value of the ticket numbers and the pictures of the windows and doors that can be found on the motives.
In the back three security features are visible: In the blank surface shimmers with the watermark image and value numbers. Moreover, then the security thread in the middle of the note visible. With the "through register" at the top left of the front is apparent only in the light a full number
With bills to 20 euros is a film strip on the right edge of the front. Depending on the light shines the euro symbol or the value number. With notes of 50 euros to appear on the square foil element also the architectural motif of appearances.
Overall, the central bank registered 52,500 counterfeit euro notes by 41,000 in the previous year. The rise, however, lie well below the peak of 80,000 counterfeits in 2004.
Simultaneously, the economic damage from the previous year went from 3.5 to 3.1 million euros. The Bundesbank justified this with the decline in the 100 - and 200-euro-Flowers: 2009 was almost every other flower was like a "false fifties.
