Coal, toads, beeping, gravel, Zaster or – in Bavaria – diridari: there are plenty of expressions for money in the German language. And the Deutsche Bundesbank has immortalized just as many features in our banknotes to make them counterfeit-proof. But she probably didn’t quite succeed: The Munich district court sentenced a 32-year-old man to two years and eight months in prison for counterfeiting money. He had 500 euro notes in his wallet, which even a money counting machine classified as supposedly genuine.
The defendant did not appear to be a monastery student. At least, according to statements from the district court’s press office, he “maintained contacts in the narcotics and red light district.” He obviously also had a green streak, especially since he was also interested in “flowers”. He had two fake 500s in his wallet when he was stopped by the police on the A8 motorway in April 2023.
The court came to the conclusion that the defendant and at least one other unknown person had obtained a total of 100 high-quality counterfeits. How exactly could not be clarified. However, the police experts were astonished because the counterfeits had numerous security features of real notes in a deceptively realistic imitation.
The banknotes, which appear mainly purple, have, for example, a watermark, a tactile relief or a hologram. The “blossoms” were able to keep up well with the original: the defendant ran the 100 bills through a money counting machine and the machine recognized at least eleven of them as genuine. The 32-year-old then sorted the notes into different piles. The good ones in the potty, the bad ones… well, more in the pile on the left or right.
How do you know that exactly? Because nowadays everyone films everything with their cell phone. Which now benefited the jury. The defendant made the video so that he could use it for further purchases or arrangements with suppliers.
The man will now be in prison for two years and eight months because, the court charged him, the forgeries were pretty good, so good that even the money counting machine believed it. According to the press office, the verdict is not legally binding. The prosecution and the defense filed an appeal.