The notice from the Bank of Spain: this is the way to know if you have counterfeit bills in your wallet

When we use any of the bills that we have in our wallet or in a store or restaurant they give us change after making a cash payment, it is very rare to check if that money is real or, on the contrary, it is false. In fact, the method to find out if those bills are counterfeit or not is often unknown.

The Bank of Spain ensures that six out of ten people do not usually check if the bills they have are counterfeit. For this reason, the organism has explained in his web page that there is a method by which it can be easily determined if the bills that a person has are real or not.

This is the method known as ‘touch, look and turn‘, with which in three easy steps the citizen will be able to check “the legitimacy” of these bills in a simple way and in a few seconds:

-The first step is tap the ticket. The Bank of Spain explains that the front face of the banknote is made of cotton fiber, which is why a “characteristic” sound can be appreciated when moving it. Passing your finger along the obverse of that bill, you should notice the relief of the drawing on it, the value of the bill and the lines that appear on its lateral edges.

-The second step is to watch the ticket up to the light When doing so, if the bill is true, several security elements must appear, such as the watermark in the white space of the bill, the security thread (that dark line embedded in the paper) and the transparent window in the side hologram.

-The third and last step is turn the ticket. The portrait of the goddess Europa, the main motif and the value of the banknote that are located in the hologram produce “different visual effects” when tilting the banknote. If you look at the bill from the back, you can see how numbers of the amount appear in the window with the portrait. In addition, the emerald green number in the lower left corner gives off a metallic reflection and turns dark blue when the note is turned.

And if the citizen discovers after this analysis that he has a counterfeit bill? The Bank of Spain informs that in this case he will have to return the bill at any branch of the organization, to the police authorities or to any credit institution.

What are the most commonly detected counterfeit bills?

The European Central Bank has reported that the most frequently detected counterfeit banknotes on the continent They are 20 and 50 eurossince between the two amounts they add up to nearly two thirds of the total counterfeit bills detected.

The return of economic activity after the first stages of the coronavirus pandemic raised the number of counterfeit banknotes detected by 8.4% in 2022, but despite this, last year’s data was the second lowest in the historical series : only 13 counterfeit notes were detected for every million notes.