How to recognize Mexico's most counterfeit bills

At the beginning of the year, the Bank of Mexico (Banxico), through its General Director of Issuance and Principal Cashier, Alejandro Alegre, informed which the most counterfeited banknotes in 2021.

In the aforementioned year, the counterfeiting of banknotes decreased from the previous year, but increased in the 500 and 1,000 peso denomination bills, the official said. The increase in the 500 and 1,000 peso bills is due to the higher profit margin for criminals.

According to Banxico's count of counterfeit bills captured per year by denomination, 500-peso bills were the most counterfeited in 2021, with a total of 139,124 pieces detected, compared to 125,808 in 2020. In 2021, Banxico detected the following number of counterfeit notes.

Counterfeit bills detected in 2021 by denomination

20 pesos: 516 notes
50 pesos: 4 thousand 34 notes
100 pesos: 33,633 notes
200 pesos: 76 thousand 965 notes
500 pesos: 139 thousand 124 notes
1000 pesos: 4,270 notes

How to detect a counterfeit bill?

If you have a bill or currency that you suspect of its authenticity, you should not use it to make payments. Making payments with a counterfeit is a federal crime punishable by up to 12 years in prison. The National Commission for the Protection and Defense of Users of Financial Services (Condusef) issues the following recommendations for checking a bill if you suspect it is counterfeit.

Use the Billetes MX application, which can be downloaded from the app stores.

With the app, you can take a photo of the bill to verify that it is not counterfeit.

Touch the bill, it must have texture and reliefs that are sensitive to the touch.

Make the classic check against the light and check that it contains the watermark, the microprinted thread, the security window if it has one, and the foil.

Remember that when you rotate the banknotes they change their color tone.