Central banks remove over 40,000 fake notes on average
Most counterfeited banknotes detected in series issued from 2015–2020
Central banks recalled an average of over 40,000 fake banknotes from circulation over the past 12 months, the Currency Benchmarks 2026 reveal.
Currency departments across 34 central banks withdrew an average of 40,533 counterfeited banknotes from circulation. The figure is substantially higher than the average 16,785 volume of fake banknotes reported by central banks in the 2024 benchmark.
In this year’s sample, a high income central bank from Europe reported the largest volume (444,000) of fake
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