Thousands of fake two-euro coins circulating in the south of France: how to spot them ?

500 000 pièces contrefaites sont en circulation en Europe. ILLUSTRATION MAXPPP – Richard Villalon

The Spanish authorities, helped by Europol, dismantled this Wednesday, April 24, a network manufacturing fake two-euro coins. 500,000 fake coins from a clandestine workshop in Spain are now in circulation in Europe.

The copies are almost perfect, but don't let that fool you. According to information from our colleagues at TF1, fake two-euro coins are in circulation in Europe, and undoubtedly in large numbers in the south of France.

500 000 counterfeit coins in circulation

Indeed, the Spanish police dismantled this Wednesday, April 24, the largest workshop manufacturing counterfeit 2-euro coins in Europe over the last decade, managed by a network of Chinese nationals who, since 2018, have placed 500,000 fake coins on the European market, including 100,000 in Spain.

The Spanish media 20 Minutos specifies that two machines were found in an industrial building, capable of producing between 900 and 1,000 counterfeit coins per day.

Y la respuesta correcta es…🤔

✅La derecha es la moneda real

Así funcionaba el laboratorio de fabricación de #monedas falsas que hemos desmantelado⤵️ https://t.co/Ssh7IjlGH6 pic.twitter.com/7Hb0yCXo86

— Policía Nacional (@policia) April 24, 2024

These machines have been moved several times over the last five years, to Madrid and Barcelona, ​​thus complicating the work of Spanish investigators who took six years to dismantle the entire network with the help of Europol.

Spanish authorities claim that the minting of the counterfeit coin was of the highest quality. The raw material (the ring and the core or the gold part) came from different countries, including Portugal, without arousing suspicion, since it is two pieces of metal normal. The counterfeiters then sold each of these coins for between 60 centimes and one euro.

How to detect fake coins?

To detect counterfeit coins, the Banco de España has developed a five-step rule, reveal our Spanish colleagues.

Check whether the coin belongs to the Eurosystem : search for distinctive signs such as the value number, the word " euro " or " euro cent " and the map of Europe on one side. The year of issue and a representative image of the issuing country surrounded by the stars of the European flag must also appear on the other side Rotate the coin to correctly align the images vertically, known as "coin flip" Analyze the drawing of the map of the common side which, since 2007, includes the entire European continent. Magnetism test: the one and two euro coins are slightly magnetic in the center, and this aspect is checked using of a small magnet. Check the rough texture of the relief of the map of Europe on the one and two euro coins, a characteristic difficult to reproduce in counterfeits .

This is not the first time that counterfeit two-euro coins have circulated massively in France. Already in 2017, Thai 10 baht coins were masquerading as two euro coins. And in 2013, a report from the European Commission stated that two euro coins were the most counterfeited in the euro zone.