Last year marked a record low for the number of fake bank notes reported to the Central Bank of Malta, its figures reveal.

Just 480 counterfeit notes were reported in total for 2020, compared with the 19.6 million genuine notes in circulation during the second half of the year.

The forgeries were also low (0.09 per cent) as a proportion of the total number of counterfeits seized in the euro area as a whole last year.

In Malta, the most common fakes are with €20 and €50 notes, which accounted for 71.2 per cent of all counterfeits withdrawn from circulation. 

The Central Bank said that notwithstanding the low figures of counterfeits reported locally, it reminded the public to remain alert over banknotes received in cash transactions.

It said that in the past months there was an increase in the number of low-quality counterfeits withdrawn from circulation.

All are very easy to detect as they have very poor imitations of security features.

Genuine banknotes, it said, can be easily recognised by feeling it for firmness and raised print, holding it against the light to see the security watermark, and tilting it to see the hologram strip.