I've been trawling the Internet for examples, and apparently nothing has inspired coinage fraud quite like the Eurozone. Since the coins are bimetallic and the designs change from country to country, most people are completely jaded to similarly-sized foreign coins:
Quote:
My uncle found a 20 dollar coin from Jamaica. it is identical in diameter, shape, colour, weight (apparently) and even its edges are equal!! 8O
He confused it with a €-coin from a "weird country" (he thought it was from San Marino or something strange, untill he read "jamaica" :lol: )
So the pre-euro ingenuity (2 Austrian schillings glued = 1 pound; large 5p = 1 Deutschmark...) has completely blown up.
First, the famous 10 Thai baht = 2 euro trick (they are so similar and ubiquitous, many vending machines won't accept either).
And the ingenuity of the Internet:
Quote:
Also, the old two-and-a-half Portuguese escudo coin (just over €0,01) was a great replacer for the 50-pffenig (about €0,25) one.
My father travelled a lot to his native Germany, so he kept a cup with dozens of 2$50 coins... :D
The mark is permanently convertible to the Euro, and there are a couple news articles about businesses still accepting them (especially after the Euro sovereign debt crisis, when many Germans wanted to spend something more national). So go to Germany, and this could still work.
Quote:
I got an old Italian coin recently that looked similar to the 2 EUR coin. Never noticed it when I received it. However when I tried to pay with it, the cashier spotted that it wasn't a 2 EUR coin. I think it was for 1000 Lira, which would have been about 50 cent.
This would be 500 lira. Apparently this is a growing problem in Italy. 1000 lira was shorter-lived and would look like 1 Euro, but I don't have one to test. And the bill was more popular!
Quote:
Today in our cafeteria, our beloved manager showed us a coin that had ended up in her till. It looked at first like a 2€ coin, but upon inspection was a Mexican coin (no doubt from some Mexican conference members that passed through a few weeks back.) Me sees potential mischief here (get a bag of the coins then use them in place of the 2€ ones) - or am I just being cynical?
10 pesos are close to 10 pounds, but the inner ring (and the entire coin itself) is too small. 5 pesos is an almost perfect match for 2 euros.
Quote:
You don't have to go all the way to Mexico, Hungary should do the trick. The other day I found a 100-forint coin in my purse - easy to mistake it for a €1 coin.
Close, but not quite. It's a thick coin that feels the same, but the inner and outer ring colours are reversed. However, it is close to the Hong Kong $10 coin.
Quote:
reminds me of whenthe deutsche mark was still in existence and the old shilling / 5p coin was almost exactly the same in size and weight of a 1 mark coin.
A quick glance shows me that this should also work.
Quote:
During my first stay in Germany about 9 years ago (when I was still immature and behaved irresponsibly) I discovered that the Canadian loonie ($1 coin) was exactly the same size as the German 5DM coin and that it worked perfectly in the cigarette machines, and so took advantage of this generous savings for months.
5DM is too big, but 2DM is a close match. However, no person would accept the yellow 11-sided loonie instead of the round grey 2DM.
Quote:
The Canadian Toonie (2 dollar coin) looks like the 2 Euro coin.
It's bigger and flatter, and has a face value almost as high as 2 Euros anyway. Don't try it.
Quote:I have just been reliably informed that the Turks have introduced a new 1 Lira coin that is remarkably similar to the €2 coin in general use. Watch your change in the coming days since you may through intention or otherwise receive one of these coins.
The problem:
similar design but the lira is only worth 40 cents:
Sounds like an issue, and the reply:
Quote:
is this the turks pushing hard for eu membership? ;-)
Quote:
French 10 centimes (passed as a 0.10€)
British 1 Penny (passed as a 0.05€)
and the most interesting of all... South African 10cents Rand(passed as a 0.05€).
A few days ago I so an urugayan 1 Peso coin that is similar to the 0.10€ coin.
And small change, which is more likely to be an honest mistake.
Quote:
I received a 1 c from USA some time ago, but doesn´t matter, I like it ;)
I like the idea of the common Cent being seen as exotic! And I think the same whenever 2 Eurocents turn up with my pennies.
Quote:
I don't live in the euro area but here in the :flag-uk: UK I've been given an Icelandic coin which looked like £1 and which I then found difficult to get rid of :)
Probably 50 Kronur, I wish I had brought the higher-denomination coins back with me. Luckily, I found 2 100KR for 20 cents each in a junkbin... they're worth 80!
There is also a comprehensive list with pictures! Highlights are the clad quarter as 50 Eurocents, 20 Mexican centavos as 10 Eurocents, a Bulgarian lev and 25 Syrian pounds (probably no longer issued! but it has a nifty lateral image) as 1 Euro, and an Egyptian pound as 2 Euros.
I'm also learning that Spain issues a 12 Euro coin and used to have a 2000 peseta coin, both silver, both of which circulate(d) a little bit. Wow, these European forums are pretty good! (But these quotes are from more than one website.)
Posted 08/24/2013 07:05 am
