Special machines for the production of fake 2-euro coins, special materials for their production, molds, as well as finished and semi-finished coins are the spoils of the Macedonian and Kosovo prosecutors in a coordinated Europol operation to suppress what has been known for months to be happening: People from Macedonia produce counterfeit Eurocoins, load them in bags in a trunk for the coins without any real value to take them to Kosovo, i.e. put them into circulation there.

But was the 34-year-old Sh.D. by Resen the "head" of the operation? He worked in the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and his career as a close associate of the former head of the prosecution of organized crime has been on hold since the day before yesterday in custody in Kosovo, after he was arrested in the action as a suspect in the production and circulation of hundreds of thousands of counterfeit metal euro coins in Kosovo. The Office of Eurojust (European Union Agency for Criminal Justice) informs that the MIA official is suspected of producing 2 million fake coins of 2 euros each (4 million euros in total), which were supposed to be put into circulation in Kosovo. The internal control of the Ministry of the Interior is investigating whether there are other employees of the Ministry of the Interior who were engaged in this "business".

On August 4 of this year, several locations in the country were searched at the same time, after which machines for the production of counterfeit coins were found in Skopje, thousands of manufactured coins, rings and blank templates. Authorities were notified of the suspect's activities through a coordinated intelligence effort, he reported Europol.

Kosovo is "paved" with counterfeit two-euro coins to such an extent that business owners no longer have a problem neither receiving nor giving them, it was written Reuters in September 2023. In a cafe in Pristina, according to the German media, the staff gave up checking whether the €2 coins that the customers were using were real or not. The reason was that the number of fake two-euro coins was very large, and some of them were of such high quality that they were difficult to recognize.

At first, everyone was worried and checking the 2 euro coins, whether they were counterfeit or not. We checked their shine, or how they sound when they fall on the table. We don't check them now. It is possible to receive fake money, but also to give it. It's the same, told Reuters the waiter from the cafe.

Citizens had no mechanism to verify authenticity, which contributed accept the coins and ignore the problem, or stop accepting coins as a means of payment. The quality of counterfeit €2 coins can vary, and for the specific ones caught in the action of a few days ago, additional checks will be carried out, in which they will be compared with other coins already seized and taken out of circulation, in order to assess the magnitude of production. In November 2023, the Prosecutor's Office of Kosovo announced that it had arrested 6 people, three of whom were Macedonian citizens suspected of counterfeiting two-euro coins. The group distributed counterfeit money on the Kosovo market, and 85 thousand euros in coins were found in their cars.

Toll roads are one of the places where fake coins are used.

From November 22, 2022 to July 31, 2023, a total of 7.141 counterfeit two-euro coins with a total value of 14.282 thousand euros and 251 counterfeit 1-euro coins with a value of 251 euros were detected, the Public Enterprise for State Roads reported.

The National Bank of the Republic of North Macedonia clarified in a previous announcement that counterfeit euro coins can be easily recognized if you carefully check the design on the front and back of the coin and its edge.

The design of counterfeit coins often looks vague, with many bumps and scratches and their shape is irregular. The inscriptions on the edges of the original euro coins are sharp, for easier recognition by the visually impaired, while on the counterfeit ones they are unclear and unrecognizable, and the distance between the individual symbols and words is also different, the report says.

Through the use of a magnet, they state that it is relatively easy and simple to identify a counterfeit coin.

 

 

– The central part of the coins is made of a special security material that has weak magnetic properties, while the outer ring has no magnetic properties. Unlike the original ones, counterfeit coins have strong magnetic properties or none at all, the National Bank said in a statement.