Have people stopped counterfeiting bank notes?

They are making their fortunes out of the pound coins... for the moment.

They are making their fortunes out of the pound coins... for the moment.

Then they have improved immeasurably. It is some years since I've noticed someone deliberately passing me fakes (at one point I stopped using a particular fast food outlet, such was the disdain of its staff for the sterling work of the Royal Mint). That said, some of the early snide coins were apparently made by counterfeiters who'd never actually seen a genuine coin, and would mix English and Welsh features, or stick Her Majesty upside down.

On those rare occasions I win enough to be paid in £50 notes, the bookie invariably asks if I mind fifties, which may be a sign there is still a problem at the top end.

Oh if people still avoid them then maybe there is a problem.

I think most people decline £50 notes because it's hard work spending them. Whenever I've paid with a fifty in the past I always feel a bit awkward because the cashiers always hold them up to the light, and turn the note round two or three times before accepting it, plus I'm always hoping to myself that it is real.

We used to get £10 notes for £3 in the late 90's, they were easy to spend in dark nightclubs/pubs but you couldn't get away with it all the time. I'd have thought counterfeit notes would be top notch nowadays.

Clydesdales were a problem.

Ramruma, over 50 million estimated to be in circulation. A new £1 coin that will be harder to fake is being introduced in 2017.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2918703/How-fake-1-coins-purse-Bank-England-chiefs-admit-currently-50-million-fakes-circulation-s-one-thirty-fool-vending-machines.html

@crags -- that is very interesting. I've just had a quick shufti at my "known fakes" pile (which I use for supermarket trollies) and can see the patterns the paper describes, with the inscribed, milled edge being a giveaway even after they forged the other parts right.

Interesting that the reason for changing the design each year is to make it easier for the experts to spot fakes. I'd have thought it makes it harder for the public, if we cannot be sure what the coins are supposed to look like. Most likely the Mint has smarter people than me, though.

Was in a clothes shop the other day and they put all notes through a machine to check they were genuine



Can still get rid of fake £20s at music festival though

most people wont take €500 notes

i had such a job getting one last christmas

mate of mine just got six months in prison for forgery, he was filing the edges off 50p's and turning them into 10s