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Counterfeit Warning
On nearly all German banknotes the following sentence is printed somewhere in very small letters:
"Wer Banknoten nachmacht oder verfälscht, oder nachgemachte oder verfälschte sich verschafft
und in Verkehr bringt, wird mit Zuchthaus nicht unter zwei Jahren bestraft."
Literally translated into English the sentence would read like this:
"Those who duplicate or counterfeit banknotes or who acquire and bring into circulation duplicated or
counterfeited banknotes will be sentenced to jail for a minimum term of two years."
Over the years the wording has changed to reflect the development and change of the language.
But right from the late 19th century over the Nazi period and communist East Germany through to the
modern issues in West Germany - a similar version of the sentence is present on nearly all German
banknotes. The stability of the German criminal law is recognisable in the fact that the threatened
punishment has always remained at a minimum jail sentence of two years.
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