News in Brief

Hologram Label Used to Counterfeit £20 Notes

West Midlands Police (UK) have released information on what to do if you think you have come across a fake banknote, after a video was posted online showing a counterfeit £20 on which the hologram stripe had been simulated by a sticker.

The video shows a man removing the sticker off to reveal the words ‘prop note’ and a void where the hologram should be. (So-called ‘prop money’ is produced for use in movies and, although it looks authentic from afar, normally has wording that identifies it as faux currency. It is not illegal to make prop money, but it is illegal to try and use it in place of real money).

According to the Bank of England’s website, ‘in 2021 typically less than 0.0022% of banknotes were counterfeit, that is less than 1 in 40,000 banknotes. Some 103,000 counterfeit Bank of England banknotes with a nominal face value of £2.7 million were taken out of circulation. At any one time, there is around 4.7 billion genuine banknotes in circulation, with a notional face value of £84 billion.’