Where the pound ranks among the world’s most counterfeited currencies

Suitcases of forged banknotes aren’t just the stuff of heist movies and spy novels. Banks and governments around the globe are constantly working to prevent fraudsters from introducing fake cash into circulation – and some countries are more successful in their efforts than others.

Nations typically use parts per million (ppm), a metric borrowed from chemistry, to monitor counterfeit currency. They give a score by measuring the number of fake banknotes found in circulation for every one million genuine notes. Most nations aim to stay below the 15 ppm mark, though quite a few have seen an uptick in counterfeited cash.

Read on to discover how much fraudulent money is floating around in some of the world’s major currencies, ranked from the lowest ppm rate to the highest.

All dollar amounts in US dollars unless otherwise stated.

Malaysia’s counterfeiting index is well below the international benchmark of 15 ppm. The country’s score peaked at 1.9 ppm in 2015 and had been on a steady decline, reaching just three fake notes per 10 million in 2022, or 0.3 ppm. Until recently, that is…

The rate jumped to 1.6 ppm in 2023, according to Bank Negara Malaysia, which attributes the increase to a single incident involving 3,868 pieces of forged ringgit notes.

Despite the ringgit being one of the world’s least forged currencies, Malaysia’s central bank continues to improve and enhance its anti-counterfeiting measures.

Security details on ringgit banknotes include raised printing, 3D watermarks, clear windows, and a thread that changes colour when the note is tilted.

Fake cash in Australia reached its peak in June 2015 when the rate exceeded 30 ppm, before steadily declining to the much lower average of 6.7 ppm in 2023.

The Reserve Bank of Australia credited this decrease to law enforcement efforts, which included shutting down major counterfeiting operations during the 2015-2019 period. The transition to cashless payments, lockdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic, and a new series of banknotes with improved security features have also played their part.

In 2020, the $100 banknote surpassed the $50 bill to become Australia’s most forged denomination – and the bank suspected that one specific counterfeiter drove this change.

However, recent updates mean fraudsters face more of a challenge. The legitimate bill now features an image of a flying owl that appears to flex its wings and change colour when tilted, while a 3D fan shows different colour lines. Rolling colour effects feature on both sides of the note.

Forgers will also need to find a way to replicate the raised text, which features a distinctive texture, as well as the bill’s clear top-to-bottom window. Plus, UV light should reveal a hidden owl and the note’s serial number and year of print.

The Bank of Canada reported the rate of counterfeit notes in the country to be 7 ppm in 2023. However, this low rate hasn’t always been the case. A wave of rampant counterfeiting in the late 1990s and early 2000s saw Canada reach a peak of 470 ppm in 2004.

In 2011, the bank switched from paper notes to plastic, made from a polypropylene substrate and designed to be trickier to forge. As a result, counterfeiting fell by as much as 74% by 2015, according to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP).

Before the switch, the RCMP’s analysts would receive as many as 45,000 notes per month to be tested for authenticity. Four years later, this had dropped to around 1,500, many of which were copies of the older paper notes.

For security features, Canadian dollars have a large transparent window and metallic symbols along with raised text and colour-changing imagery.

However, with people increasingly using cards and phone-based apps to make purchases, the Bank of Canada is also exploring the idea of a digital Canadian dollar. This would have the same value as physical cash and be stored on a mobile device or card. Results from a public questionnaire on the concept weren’t exactly encouraging, though; Canadians were largely opposed to both the digital dollar and to the bank even researching it.

The South African Reserve Bank (SARB) reported fewer than six forged bills for every million in circulation in the 2020/21 financial year, comfortably below the 15 ppm benchmark favoured by many countries. However, it warned that this 5.68 ppm rate had likely been due to the COVID-19 pandemic and people choosing not to use cash. That proved to be the case.

Counterfeiting is up in South Africa, but remains below 12 ppm, according to SARB’s 2023 report.

SARB introduced new banknotes into circulation in May 2023. While rand notes had previously featured a different game animal from the African Big Five (lions, leopards, black rhinos, African bush elephants, and African buffalos), the new bills show each animal with one of its young. The notes also feature watermarks of each animal’s head, as well as the numerical denomination.

Other security measures include raised markings and a security strip that changes colour when tilted thanks to special ink. This same technology allows certain motifs on the bills to appear as if they’re spinning.

Counterfeiting has increased in the Philippines too. In 2021, it reported a 7.9 ppm counterfeit rate, and the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) charged 19 people with fraud. Two years later, in 2023, the average rate had grown to 12.2 ppm and law enforcement agencies charged 25 individuals with forgery crimes.

The BSP has a reputation for securing convictions in counterfeiting cases, and it’s also increasing its fraud prevention by transitioning to polymer banknotes.

The currency is often referred to by its Tagalog name ‘piso’, and both the paper and the plastic notes are still currently legal tender.

The new bill takes advantage of the many security features other countries use to protect their currencies, including ink that changes colour when tilted, tactile dots, and metallic imagery.

Unique features include a transparent space shaped like the country’s national flower, the Sampaguita, and embossed lines that spell out the bank’s initials.

Forged notes are also on the rise in New Zealand. In 2024, the country’s central bank revealed there had been a massive 300% increase over the last two years – the bank had reported a 3.64 ppm average in 2022, and that’s now as high as 14.34 ppm.

The vast majority of counterfeit currency concerns NZ$50 notes, and the bank says the problem stems from an increase in card payments; fewer cash transactions means people are less familiar with New Zealand’s banknotes.

The bank is encouraging employers, especially in retail and hospitality, to do more training on banknotes and their security features.

Made of polymer, each note features at least one transparent window. Currently, two sets of banknotes are in circulation: Series 6, which has two smaller windows, and Series 7, which has one larger window.

As part of the new features introduced in Series 7, the colour of the bird on the bill changes when it’s tilted.

The official currency for 20 of the 27 Member States of the European Union, the euro topped that all-important 15 ppm threshold in 2023.

The European Central Bank announced that 467,000 counterfeit euro banknotes were withdrawn from circulation that year, leading to a rate of 16 ppm.

Around 97% of those bills were found within the Eurozone, with the majority of them €20 and €50 banknotes.

Ever since the first series of euro banknotes was issued, the Eurosystem – the European Central Bank and the 20 national central banks of the EU Member States – has encouraged people to be vigilant when receiving cash.

To stem the tide of fake notes, the European Central Bank gradually started to introduce the Europa series in 2013, a new collection of notes with sophisticated security features such as a security thread and portrait holograms.

Other measures include watermarks that are only visible when held to the light, and the illusion that the number is shifting when the banknote is held at an angle.

Just 0.0025% of the UK’s banknotes were found to be fake in 2023.

While that is higher than the 15 ppm threshold favoured by many countries, the UK has seen the number of counterfeit notes drop in recent years.

The Bank of England says that forgeries have substantially reduced since 2019 thanks to polymer notes and the removal of paper bills, as well the increase in electronic payments.

Holograms are a prominent security feature on British banknotes. When tilted, the words over the hologram on legitimate notes should change; for example, ‘Fifty’ becomes ‘Pounds’. Likewise, within the two gold foil squares on the front of a £50 note, the images should change between ’50’ and a ‘£’ symbol.

Is the American dollar the world’s most forged currency? Quite possibly.

The US government remains secretive about the amount of counterfeit cash in circulation. Its most recent public report dates back to 2006 when it was revealed that one in every 10,000 US bills was fake. Over the last 20 years the almighty dollar has gone through a bit of a redesign in a bid to increase security, so it’s likely this figure is now much lower.

However, the US Secret Service estimates that as much as $200 million (£160m) in fake US dollar notes could be in circulation around the globe, though that does account for false money used in film and television production.

Among other authenticity features, the newest iteration of America’s $100 bill has a 3D blue ribbon woven into the paper next to Benjamin Franklin’s face. When the note is tilted, images of bells and the number 100 move from side to side.

The note also has several colour-changing motifs and a visible watermark on both sides, with all details carefully incorporated to make forgery as tricky as possible.

The US has yet to switch to plastic notes, preferring a cotton-linen substrate instead. However, that shouldn’t be mistaken for a lax approach to security. Editing software such as Adobe’s Photoshop has built-in counterfeit deterrence systems that prevent users from opening images that show US currency.

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