Funny Money

When money is short, should we be thankful for those 'entrepreneurs' seeking to do their own bit of quantitative easing.... There has been a startling increase in the number of fake pound coins, but how can we be blamed when the Royal Mint itself misses the majority of them

1 in 50 (ratio of fake £1 coins to total in Sep 08, source Royal Mint)
1 in 40 (ratio in Jan-09, Royal Mint)
1 in 20 (ratio according to independent Coin checking service, Willings, Apr-09)

The Mint states itself that its own processes can only detect 30-40% of fakes, with Willings stating it can dictate 50-60% of fakes. Although the Mint made 270,000 checks last year, there is little reason for the general public to do so, as once a fake is found it is worthless and you can do nothing with it, unless of course you put it back in the system and wait for the post office to come across it and put it out of circulation!

Of course the UK is not alone in facing counterfeit currency problems, between 2002 and 2007 14 illegal mints were closed across Europe, 585,000 euro coins were taken out of circulation (only 75 bn euro coins left in circulation!) with over half a million bank notes also seized by police in 2007. Several years ago, the situation got so bad that South Africa had to take the much maligned 5 rand coin out of circulation entirely and reintroduce it... imagine a Northern Ireland bank having to do something similar!!!