BRUSSELS, Jan. 30 (UPI) -- The number of counterfeit euro coins pulled from circulation in 2013 dropped 4 percent from 2012, the European Commission said Thursday.
The commission's news agency Europa said counterfeit coins of every denomination declined in 2012. In total 175,900 coins were pulled out of circulation in a monetary system that has 16.8 billion coins in use.
The counterfeit ratio for coins is one out of every 100,000 genuine coins.
The most commonly found counterfeit coin in the eurozone is the 2 euro denomination. Europa said two out of three counterfeit coins found are 2 euro coins.
The 50 euro cent coin makes up 16.7 percent of the counterfeit coins found. The 1 euro counterfeit coin comes up 15.6 percent of the time.
The commission said progress has been made in recent years in removing counterfeit coins from circulation, but more stringent rules are needed "to improve the prevention, investigation and sanctioning of euro counterfeiting."
