Euro authenticity checks

KEY POINTS

Testing

The regulation requires credit institutions to ensure that they authenticate euro coins either by means of appropriate coin-processing equipment or manually by staff trained specifically for the purpose. Any coin-processing equipment used must have already successfully passed a detection test carried out by the competent national authority or by the Coin National Analysis Centre in each country of the euro area.

On-the-spot controls

Countries in the euro area must perform annual on-the-spot controls in institutions to check, by means of detection tests, that a representative number of coin-processing machines function correctly. The number of coin-processing machines to be checked annually in each country must be such that the volume of euro coins processed by those machines during that year represents at least 25 % of the total cumulated net volume of coins issued by that country. This must be from the date of the introduction of euro coins until the end of the previous year.

Withdrawal and reimbursement of euro coins unfit for circulation

EU countries are required to remove from circulation not only counterfeit coins but also any genuine euro coins that have become unfit due to prolonged circulation, to an accident or to any other reason. EU countries may refuse the reimbursement to individuals of euro coins that are unfit for circulation and that have been altered either deliberately or by a process that could be reasonably expected to have the effect of altering them.

Each national authority handling euro coins unfit for circulation may levy a handling fee on legal or natural persons in order to meet the expenses related to the process. Handling fees should not be applied to submissions of small quantities of euro coins unfit for circulation.

The regulation sets out rules for the packaging of euro coins unfit for circulation, which must be sorted per denomination¹ in standardised bags or boxes.

Reporting and evaluation

Each year, EU countries must submit reports to the European Commission on their experience of authenticating euro coins.

To monitor institutions’ compliance, EU countries may request them to provide the following information:

• the types and number of coin-processing machines used;
• the location of each coin-processing machine;
• the volume of coins processed per coin-processing machine, per year and per denomination, for at least the three highest denominations.

As laid down in the regulation, in 2017 the Commission presented to the European Parliament and to the Council the latest report on the operation and effects of the regulation.