Counterfeit money

1 Counterfeit banknote detectors

Counterfeit banknote detectors range from magnifying glasses to UV lamps to electronic devices with built-in testers. When choosing what device to buy, it is usually advisable to give preference to devices which can check more than one security feature. There are also customer-operated cash in machines (CIM) and customer-operated cash recycling machines (CRM) which are installed by commercial banks.

The Deutsche Bundesbank’s Counterfeit Money Unit gives manufacturers/distributors of counterfeit money detectors the opportunity to test their devices using the Bundesbank’s sample set of the latest euro counterfeits. A test is only considered successful if the device does not accept the authenticity of any of the banknotes from our sample set. For queries about a specific device from a specific manufacturer, we can provide information on when the last successful test for this device was carried out. Should you require this information, please e-mail: cashrecycling@bundesbank.de. If you are manufacturer/vendor of banknote handling machines or authentication devices, you can apply for a test appointment under the same address.

The European Central Bank has published a list of machines which have passed euro-area NCB suitability testing for the re-issuance of processed banknotes by professional cash handlers (recycling). The list may be consulted here: http://www.ecb.int/euro/cashhand/recycling/tested/html/index.en.html. The ECB webpage also contains information about the validity of the test reports.

A similar list of tested banknote authentication devices may be found here: http://www.ecb.int/euro/cashhand/devices/results/html/index.en.html

2 Coin processing machines

For coin authentication and processing machine, there is a common euorpean test, too. Successfully tested machines can be found on the homepage of the European Commission.