Sterke stijging van het aantal vervalste euro-munten (en)

Last year saw a big leap in the number of forged euro coins, according to data released by the European Commission today (22 January).

Over 26,000 counterfeit euro coins were last year found in circulation and removed by national central banks - up from 2,339 in 2002.

Two-euro coins have seen the most counterfeit activity rising from just over 1000 forged coins in 2002 to over 19,600 coins in 2003.

Three illegal coinshops were dismantled last year, two in Italy and one in Portugal.

Meanwhile, forgers have also been busy on the note front.

The European Central Bank today published figures showing that 311,925 counterfeit euro banknotes were removed from circulation in the second half of last year - a 30% increase on the first half of last year.

Overall some nine billion (genuine) euro notes and 49 billion euro coins are in circulation.