One of our key responsibilities as a central bank is to maintain conviction in the currency. We are responsible for providing banknotes that you tin can use with the conviction that they are genuine.

Overview

Our anti-counterfeiting strategy has five key elements:

  1. Developing and issuing new land-of-the-art counterfeit resilient notes. This was one of the primary reasons for moving from cotton-paper to polymer banknotes.
  2. Working with the greenbacks manufacture and then that just loftier-quality, authentic notes are issued and recirculated.
  3. An active instruction programme that works with businesses and the public to aid people understand how to identify genuine banknotes.
  4. Providing a framework for greenbacks machine companies and those companies that own or operate ATMs so that they can test and prove that their equipment and processes meets minimum authentication standards.
  5. Working closely with law enforcement agencies to disrupt counterfeiting operations.

How many counterfeit banknotes are in apportionment?

The vast majority of counterfeits are discovered before they become back into apportionment, when retailers and the banking system are sorting them. A smaller number are detected by the public or retailers who hand them direct to the police, or when the law bear out search warrants. Counterfeits are typically removed from apportionment apace, often after a single use.

In 2021 typically less than 0.0022% of banknotes were counterfeit, that is less than 1 in xl,000 banknotes. Some 103,000 counterfeit Banking concern of England banknotes with a nominal face up value of £two.seven million were taken out of circulation. At any one fourth dimension, there is around four.7 billion 18-carat banknotes in circulation, with a notional confront value of £84 billion.

The figures show the 2021 data, along with annual information since 2005. Lower transactional usage of greenbacks and the increased robustness of the polymer designs acted to reduce counterfeiting during 2021.

View the data

What do I do if I get a counterfeit banknote?

Counterfeit banknotes are rare and also worthless.

We cannot reimburse y'all for counterfeit banknotes. If you lot doubtable that yous have a counterfeit banknote, delight take it to your nearest police station. The police should fill out an NCO-1 form and provide you with a receipt and incident number. The suspect notes will be sent to the National Law-breaking Bureau and if counterfeit to the Banking concern of England for further examination.

If you have information most someone making, selling or using apocryphal banknotes, please contact the police or telephone Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.

Counterfeiting direct funds organised crime. It hurts the UK economy by creating losses for businesses, which ultimately affects the price of things that we purchase. It also affects the pocket of anyone who receives a counterfeit annotation, equally they are worthless. If y'all report counterfeiting to the constabulary, you are helping with investigations and alerting them to a problem in their area. This means that they can have action to protect your community.

Watch our short film on apocryphal prevention:

  • If you are a retailer or business that handles cash, so you could be a target for counterfeiters looking to pass their notes.

    And, if yous aren't routinely checking the notes you receive, the risk of getting defenseless out by these criminals only increases.

    Counterfeits make up only a very small fraction of Bank of England banknotes in circulation. But every bit businesses, you and your staff need to exist vigilant confronting them.

    Counterfeiting directly funds organised crime, and information technology doesn't just injure the businesses targeted, it besides damages your customs. The notes themselves are worthless. If you accept one unknowingly or otherwise, you or your business will be out of pocket and it could bear on your customers.

    Fortunately all Depository financial institution of England banknotes accept a series of security features congenital into their design. These features volition help you identify whether the notes are 18-carat.

    Considering these features can be checked quickly, they won't boring you down. The more enlightened you and your employees are of these security features, and the more of them you check at betoken-of-sale, the less probable yous will be to fall victim to counterfeits. With the right training, you can easily bank check these security features. So what practise you do if you think you've been handed a counterfeit note? You lot tin can't ignore it. Knowingly holding on to or passing counterfeit notes is illegal, and information technology could damage your reputation if one of your customers or suppliers realises y'all've given them a apocryphal banknote.

    "I'm pitiful, I recollect this is the counterfeit note".

    Y'all should understand your company policy and know what to say to customers.

    "I'm agape I'g going to take to have this and inquire for some other form of payment".

    If the note turns out to exist genuine, the customer volition become their coin back. Fill in a counterfeit receipt and send the banknote to the Bank of England, either directly or via your ain bank.

    Still if you feel at take a chance, give the note dorsum to the customer and inquire for some other form of payment. If you suspect the customer is purposefully trying to pass a counterfeit note, call the law, and if you have kept the notation manus information technology over to them.

    Confidence comes with experience and good preparation.

    The more these checks go routine, the less risk there is of getting caught out.

    For more data, or to download our gratis grooming materials, go to the banknote section on the Banking company of England website.

    Yous work hard, don't allow counterfeits be a price to your business concern, your customers or your reputation.

This page was last updated 08 March 2022