Three counterfeit euro banknotes have surfaced in Germany just days after the single currency went into circulation.
A casino cashier in a town near Mainz accepted a €500 note from a customer, only to realise later that the man had cut an illustration of a €500 note from a newspaper and glued it together.
"All the other euro notes were printed smaller in the newspaper, only the 500 was printed in its original dimensions," said a police spokeswoman.
The cashier checked with her manager before she accepted the note and exchanged it for nearly DM1,000. Only later did she notice the forgery.
The European Central Bank has strict rules which forbid exact reproduction of banknotes. An ECB spokesman told The Irish Times the bank "might consider legal steps if the reproduction rules were breached".
Meanwhile, Rhineland police said they arrested a man on New Year's Day after he tried to spend a colour photocopy of a €20 note at a petrol station. The man was arrested after the cashier notified the police.
A third euro note was found by a young girl on a regional train near Cologne on Wednesday. She found the €50 note on a carriage radiator and gave it to her mother. She immediately noticed the note had no security features and passed it on to police. "The note was printed on both sides which is better than some forgeries you get," a police spokesman said.
The German Bundesbank said it had not yet examined the counterfeits but said it believed all three were "primitive forgeries" and not the work of a professional counterfeiting ring.
Meanwhile, at home a Garda investigation has been launched after a forged 10 euro note was passed off in a sub-post office in Straffan, Co Kildare.
The forgery was of poor quality and may have been a colour photocopy. It was discovered as post office workers sorted through the day's takings on Wednesday. Local gardaí are heading the investigation.
