- Title: Kosovo awash with forged 2-euro coins
- Date: 21st September 2023
- Summary: PRISTINA, KOSOVO (SEPTEMBER 19, 2023) (REUTERS) WAITER ENDRIT (NO LAST NAME GIVEN) WORKING IN BAR VARIOUS OF MAN MAKING COFFEE VARIOUS OF ENDRIT POURING 2 EUROS COINS ONTO TRAY HAJZERI HOLDING 2 EUROS COINS (SOUNDBITE) (Albanian) WAITER, ENDRIT, SAYING: “In the beginning (a few years ago when first counterfeit coins appeared on the market) everyone was worried about it, afraid to see if two-euro coins were fake or not. There were a lot of clients who would not accept them if we gave the fake money (as a change). Now it is nothing interesting anymore. It is the same and it is kind of routine. We take fake money, we give fake money. It is all the same now.” MAN MAKING COFFEE VARIOUS OF ENDRIT SERVING CLIENTS VARIOUS OF PEOPLE SITTING AT OUTDOOR TABLES VARIOUS OF CARS AT PARKING LOT WOMAN PAYING FOR PARKING CAR DRIVING AWAY FROM PARKING CARS AT PARKING LOT VARIOUS OF CEO OF PRISTINA PARKING SOKOL HAVOLLI THROWING COINS INTO MACHINE TO CHECK IF THEY ARE FAKE HAVOLLI HOLDING FAKE COINS (SOUNDBITE) (English) CEO OF PRISTINA PARKING, SOKOL HAVOLLI, SAYING: “We had a significant amount of two-euro coins that we were receiving on a daily basis from the customers, and that would amount to about €100-150 euro per day, which could go up to €50,000 annually. And that would present a significant loss for the company. But also it would threaten the integrity of our employees because there were cases that were being treated by the police against our employees while they were not guilty in terms of receiving this money. So we had to intervene in December last year to ban completely the acceptance of the two-euro coin in our company.” VARIOUS OF POLICE CAR OUTSIDE FORENSIC LABORATORY BUILDING VARIOUS OF FORENSIC OFFICER AT COUNTERFEIT DEPARTMENT, VJOLLCA MAVRIQI AND ANOTHER OFFICER CHECKING TWO-EURO COINS (SOUNDBITE) (Albanian) FORENSIC OFFICER AT COUNTERFEIT DEPARTMENT, VJOLLCA MAVRIQI, SAYING: “According to our statistics, the most counterfeited currency is a two-euro coin.” MAVRIQI CHECKING COINS (SOUNDBITE) (Albanian) FORENSIC OFFICER AT COUNTERFEIT DEPARTMENT, VJOLLCA MAVRIQI, SAYING: “Regarding the kinds of fake coins, I can say that we see very poor quality which means poor engraving, or the stamping method but also we see some very high-quality fake coins. Of course, for our department, it is not difficult to check the originality of a coin.” VARIOUS OF MAVRIQI CHECKING ORIGINALITY OF COIN ON COMPUTER VARIOUS OF MAVRIQI CHECKING COINS UNDER HIGH-RESOLUTION CAMERA
- Embargoed: 5th October 2023 13:38
- Keywords: Euro in Kosovo Kosovo currency counterfeit coins fake Euro coins
- Location: PRISTINA, KOSOVO
- City: PRISTINA, KOSOVO
- Country: Kosovo
- Topics: Europe,Currencies/Foreign Exchange Markets,Economic Events
- Reuters ID: LVA001379921092023RP1
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text:At a cafe in Kosovo's capital Pristina, staff have given up checking whether the 2-euro coins people use to pay are genuine, as such a high proportion are fake and as the high quality of some counterfeits makes it almost impossible to tell.
The number of fake 2-euro coins in circulation has seen a massive increase this year, according to law enforcement agencies.
Police said last year they sent 804 cases to prosecutors relating to money forgery, and 486 so far this year.
In April they arrested a man and a woman trying to bring 10,600 fake 2-euro coins into Kosovo from North Macedonia.
The boss of a parking company says the deluge of fake coins is a major problem.
Kosovo and neighbouring Montenegro are not part of the Euro Zone but nevertheless use the euro as their currency.
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