Online training course: how to detect euro banknotes that are counterfeits or unfit for circulation

Cash-in-shop

Customers can withdraw cash from their bank account without making a purchase. If retail staff issue cash to the public, they are obliged to check euro banknotes for authenticity and fitness. This is how we ensure that only genuine and clean notes are in circulation. Suspicious, soiled and torn notes must be taken to the bank.

Authenticity and fitness checks can be carried out by a certified banknote handling machine or by trained staff who have completed this training course, taken an exam and obtained a certificate.

The training course is already available online for retail staff via this link. Obtaining a certificate will be possible from mid-2025.

De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB) will carry out checks at shops offering this payment service from September 2025. We may ask a shop assistant operating the POS terminal to show their certificate and identify themselves.

Protecting euro banknotes

Euro banknotes withdrawn from a bank account must first be checked for authenticity and fitness by the cash handler issuing them to the public. For example, this applies to cash withdrawn from an ATM, but also to cash-in-shop withdrawals.

Council Regulation (EC) No 1338/2001  (as amended by Regulation No 44/2009) laying down measures necessary for the protection of the euro against counterfeiting defines cash handlers and prescribes how the checks must be carried out.

For more background information on detection devices and banknote handling machines, see the ECB web page for cash professionals.

Implementation of the Payment Services Regulation

The European Payment Services Regulation will come into force in 2027. Among other things, this regulation will allow a cardholder to withdraw euro banknotes from their bank account at a point of sale that offers this service, such as a shop, even if no agreement with a bank is in place. The point of sale will qualify as a cash handler, and all euro banknotes it issues must be checked either with a banknote handling machine or by trained staff.

Cashback

Points of sale are already allowed to issue euro banknotes to debit card holders who pay for their purchases. This payment service is exempt, and points of sale do not qualify as cash handlers.