The number of counterfeit £1 coins in circulation has doubled in the last five years, according to new figures released by the Royal Mint and reported by the BBC. Two percent or 1 in 50 pound coins are fake, and based on production, that would account for some 30 million counterfeit £1s circulating.
In its last Annual Report, the Royal Mint indicates it conducts two yearly surveys and collects a "representative sample base." They noted an upward trend in fake coins, which they "shared with the Police who have had some notable successes in closing down illegal operations during the year."
With the actual figures now made public through the BBC, concern has risen according to news reports. As one cited example, Robert Matthews, former Queen’s Assay Master, said:
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The European Central Bank (ECB) reported an increase in counterfeit activity for the first half of 2008, which is on the heals of 2007’s latter half increase. 312,000 fake banknotes were removed from circulation representing an increase of 5.4 percent.
The ECB noted counterfeit banknotes increased since the second half of 2007 by 5.7 percent. However, they went on to say:
"When the figures…are compared with the number of genuine euro banknotes in circulation (on average 11.5 billion during the first half of 2008), the quantity of counterfeits is very small indeed.
Excluding 2007, the trend has been a reduction in fake notes during a year’s second half. Should that happen, total counterfeits in 2008 could decreased compared to previous years. However, that would appear unlikely given this year’s already high numbers.
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Five people were arrested in Southern California earlier this week for allegedly counterfeiting between $5 and $6 million in phony $20s and $100s over the past two years.
Laserjet printers were apparently used to make the money, and it all happened within a residential home in Lawndale, California.
According to an Associated Press article, those arrested in included:
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A news article today recounted how China’s leading online game operator, The9 Ltd., will begin suspending the accounts of players who steal and then resell virtual coins used within the extremely popular and worldwide online game, World of Warcraft®.
With a world subscription base of over 10 million players who each pay a monthly fee, the news is positive for that particular online community. But what about the real world where coins and their holders are counterfeited and then sold?
In recent months, two of the top coin certification companies have issued consumer advisories regarding counterfeit replica coin holders used to help sell fake or counterfeit coins through online auctions such as eBay®.
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Making dough is common place in a pizza shop kitchen. Making fake dough, as in counterfeited $50 bills, is not so common.
Police arrested Frank Donato back in October of 2007. At the time, Fox News reported the owner of a Dobbs Ferry, N.Y., pizzeria was cooking up more than pizza.
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Over the weekend four suspected counterfeiters were arrested by Columbian police along with $4 million dollars in fake U.S. currency.
Authorities had reportedly been searching for the suspects for six years and they were on the U.S. most wanted list.
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The European Central Bank (ECB) reported an increase in counterfeit activity for the second half of 2007. 296,000 fake banknotes were removed from circulation for an increase of 31,000 notes over the first six months of 2007.
The ECB noted counterfeiting was also up in the second half of 2007 compared to the second half of 2006. However, they went on to say:
… it is still within the bounds of the pattern established over the last few years …
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Three Long Island 17-year old high school students are under arrest for printing counterfeit $10s, $20s and $50s from the back of a pickup truck.
Amazingly, police say ink jet printers were used to print the bills. The power source? A Radio Shack inverter plugged into the pickup truck’s cigarette lighter.
The average person could easily assume any teenager who used the bed of a truck as a factory floor and inkjet printers to output bogus bills would get caught and arrested in short notice time.
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Analyzing the effort to reward ratio of creating counterfeit coins and then successfully getting them into daily circulation would seem to forestall an attempt to actually do it. Unless you have a mint-style facility with all the necessary equipment, materials and staff at your disposal, the work required to phony up fake coins is an imposing thought.
Then, imagine trying to close "shop" and before heading home for the day, exchanging your freshly forged counterfeit coins for real cash at the local store.
Believe it or not, one man, Marcus Glindon from north London, undertook an almost similar and gigantic task. He managed to counterfeit 14 million blank coins, and 2.5 fully stamped £1 coins during a seven year period.
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The time, effort and expense of counterfeiting one dollar coins just doesn’t make sense.
It’s easy to at least understand a criminal’s motivation in counterfeiting rare and valuable coins. But the incentive to forge a daily and common circulating coin? It defies logic.
Yet, that’s exactly what happened with a New Zealand dollar coin. And there’s currently an investigation into counterfeit U.S. Presidential $1 coins, although it would boggle the mind if those were verified as fake.
The U.S. case has been covered and, so far, nothing is new. However, the New Zealand story is intriguing, although brief in detail.
New Zealand counterfeit dollar coin
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