Counterfeit banknotes in circulation: the figures
Reviewed on 1 September 2026 · By the Detectalia technical team
How many fake notes are really out there? The official figures point to a risk that is low in proportion — but rising in the UK, and heavily concentrated in the denomination that passes through tills most: the £20.
The 2025 figures
In 2025, around 200,000 counterfeit Bank of England notes with a face value of roughly £4 million were taken out of circulation — about double the previous year's figure. Even after that jump, counterfeits remain below 0.005 % of the notes in circulation: the polymer series has proved far harder to forge than the old paper notes, but the counterfeiters have not gone away.
For context, the euro area moved the other way: the European Central Bank withdrew some 444,000 counterfeit euro notes in 2025, 20 % fewer than the year before — around 14 fakes per million genuine notes, one of the lowest rates in the euro's history.
The £20 carries the risk
The bulk of UK counterfeits are £20 notes — precisely the denomination that moves most through shop and hospitality tills. Counterfeiters seek the balance between value and suspicion: a £50 gets examined; a £20, almost never. In the euro area the same logic concentrates around 80 % of forgeries in the €20 and €50.
The other trend central banks flag is the growing share of low-quality counterfeits — simple prints, even «prop money» — which succeed not because they are convincing, but because nobody looks at the note at the moment of payment.
What it means for a business
The correct reading of a low-but-concentrated, rising risk: the chance of meeting a fake note in a year is small for an individual, and real for a business that takes hundreds of £20 notes a week. And since an accepted counterfeit is valueless — the Bank of England does not reimburse it — the sums are simple: the potential loss from a handful of notes exceeds the price of a fake note detector.
The low-quality counterfeit data points the same way: forgeries do not need to be perfect when there is no checking. It is enough that there is checking — automatic, at the moment of payment — for no version, good or bad, to enter the till.
Frequently asked questions
Where do these figures come from?
From the counterfeit statistics published by the Bank of England for sterling notes, and by the European Central Bank for the euro area — both compiled from counterfeit notes withdrawn from circulation.
If counterfeits are such a small share, do I still need a detector?
The proportion is low, but UK counterfeits doubled in 2025, the risk concentrates in the £20 your till handles daily, and the loss per accepted note is never compensated. Automatic checking is an insurance policy that pays for itself with the first rejections.
Are coins counterfeited too?
Yes — historically the round £1 was heavily forged, which is why it was replaced by the current 12-sided coin, and in the euro area the €2 is the main target. Coin counters and sorters help flag anomalous pieces when processing change.