Counterfeit currency

Organised criminals involved in faking money in the UK produce a variety of banknote types, including Bank of England and Scottish Sterling notes. The volume of counterfeit Bank of England banknotes taken out of circulation fell by 24% between 2006 and 2007. However, since late 2007 there has been a marked increase in faking, focused on the 'Adam Smith' £20 note design.

It's estimated there is a face value of about €50 million in counterfeit euros across the continent. UK-based organised criminals are involved, but only a small amount of fake euros are circulated in this country.

New methods of faking banknotes

The market has changed over the last ten years. High quality counterfeit notes can be produced very quickly by skilled printers using traditional offset lithographic methods. This is still the most common counterfeiting technique used. However, organised groups are also producing digitally printed fakes, using the latest technology and laser or inkjet printing techniques.

Organised criminals involved in currency counterfeiting are increasingly coming together to operate as linked networks. While groups may produce their own unique fake banknotes, some will “finish” (add the foil security features to) or distribute counterfeits from other groups. Circulating fake money is high risk, so large batches are broken down for distribution, usually by street-level criminals.

Find out more about the threat of counterfeit money now

For further information, take a look at the currency counterfeiting section of the UK Threat Assessment (765.62 kb PDF)

For information on how to identify a genuine banknote, visit the Bank of England website

Where possible we have included downloadable files in Adobe PDF format. To view these files you will need Adobe Acrobat Reader which you can download free from Adobe’s website: