k said on Friday, continuing the slight falls seen over the last two years. "The 20-euro (note) continues to be the most counterfeited banknote, followed by the 50-euro and then the 100-euro," the ECB said in its regular six-monthly counterfeiting report.
"Between July and December 2006, these three denominations between them accounted for over 90 percent of all counterfeits found in circulation."
The number of notes withdrawn in 2006 was down 2.4 percent from the 579,000 seized in 2005, about the same decline as in the previous year.
The chances of finding a fake euro note in your wallet are still low compared with an average of 10.6 billion euro banknotes in circulation in the second half of last year. The ECB said that of the 265,000 fake euro notes it withdrew in the July-December period, 36 percent were 20-euro notes, 31 percent were 50-euro notes and 24 percent were 100-euro notes.
About 98 percent of the fake euros are found in euro area countries, the ECB said.
Separately, Germany's Bundesbank reported that the number of fake euros it removed from circulation fell by more than one-third last year, which it said was largely due to the breaking up of a number of counterfeit printing and distribution networks by the police.
The ECB advises consumers and cashiers to check whether a note is genuine by feeling its texture and seeing whether its appearance changes when tilted.
