High confidence in authenticity
Dutch people have high confidence in the authenticity of euro banknotes, with an average rating of 7.8. Over the past decade, the proportion of the respondents giving a rating of 8 or higher increased from 49% in 2013 to 64% now. Whether they receive euro banknotes from an ATM or as change, confidence in authenticity is high with average ratings of 8.8 (ATM) and 7.7 (change). This high level of confidence partly explains why more than three quarters of Dutch people (77%) say they have not checked a banknote for authenticity in the past year, and 55% say they have never done so. More than two thirds (68%) of the respondents say they have never encountered a suspicious banknote. Euro banknotes have security features to help people distinguish real from counterfeit. 90% of Dutch people can name at least one feature; the watermark (69%) and hologram (38%) are the best known. A quarter of Dutch people who have ever received a suspicious banknote say they do not accept it (21%) or hand it in to the bank (13%), the police (9%) or DNB (7%). In any case, the one thing you should not do in this situation is to pass on the suspicious banknote to someone else. Nevertheless, a small group (13%) report having done so anyway.
€20 banknote is the most beautiful
Banknote quality is generally rated as good (Figure 2). A large majority of Dutch people find €20 (85%) and €50 (89%) banknotes to be fairly to very presentable. However, respondents remain critical of the €5 note. Less than half (41%) think these notes look fairly to very presentable, and no less than 18% report finding €5 notes to be very unpresentable. Half of the respondents find this to be the least beautiful banknote. In contrast, the €20 note is people’s favourite: 31% say this is the most aesthetically pleasing note in the series, followed by the €50 note (17%).