This also relates to the fact that the volume of demands by commercial banks for payments saw an increase by 25.9%. In other words, banks needed money and they were supplied with new notes. “The average value of a banknote in circulation at the end of 2016 was 1941 as opposed to 1878 lek at the end of 2015”, argue experts of the Bank of Albania.
They say that the domestic currency is circulating more and more in the country as opposed to the weakening of other currencies. Meanwhile, as far metallic coins are concerned, the Bank of Albania says that at the end of last year, there were 170.494.419 pieces in circulation with a total value of 4.098 lek. “Compared to 2015, there was an increase of the number of metallic coins by 7.6% and an increase in value by 7.9%”, experts of the Bank of Albania explain, adding that at the end of 2016, the general ratio between the value of metallic coins and notes was almost the same as last year.
They resulted damaged and unsuitable for payments and as such, experts removed them from circulation and reprocessed a significant part of them. We’re referring to 25.9 million pieces of banknotes considered as unsuitable for use, following an observation made by the Central Bank. “During 2016, around 114 million pieces of banknotes were processed and were inspected for their authenticity and suitability to be in circulation.
The processing resulted in 25.9 million banknotes that were unsuitable for use and which were removed from circulation. The sorting rate was 22.6%, while the same indicator for 2015 was 25%, experts argue in relation to this phenomenon. They add that banknotes unsuitable for circulation have been replaced with new banknotes, suitable to be in circulation. As far as this is concerned, they claim that the coefficient of the circulation of the banknote for 2016 was 0.95, which means that a banknote returns on average once a year at the Bank of Albania.
“This coefficient is higher for 500 lek banknotes, 1000 lek (around 1.7 and 1.2) and smaller for 5000 and 2000 lek banknotes (around 0.22 and 0.78), which means that these banknotes return less frequently to the Bank of Albania”, the Bank of Albania also explains.
Half of forgeries with the 1000 lek notes
Be careful with 1000 lek notes, because one in two is the probability that it may be forged. According to the Bank of Albania, the forgeries of this banknote occupied 47% of the total last year. Although, according to this institution, it is a fact that last year, the amount of banknotes and coins that were forged and discovered in circulation, saw a drop of 13.4%, compared to a year ago. “The 1000 lek banknote has been followed by the 50 lek coin with 19% of the total and the 500 lek and 2000 lek notes occupied 15% and 14% of the total of forgeries”, the experts of the Bank of Albania say.
They add that the investigation over the forgery of national banknotes points out that digital colored reproductions, combined with the application of additive methods for the imitation of security elements dominates. Meanwhile, as far as the technical basis for the forgery of bank notes is concerned, there’s no tendency for professional printing, focusing on the improvement of the ability to imitate first level security elements, which relate to seeing and touching and less often on the ones detected by machines.
