Be Careful About this CZECH MONEY in Prague!!!

Czech National Bank decided to discontinue all banknotes of 100, 200, 500, 1000, and 2000 crowns printed between 1995 and 1999. However, these old bills are still around and if you are not careful enough you might get them as a change in the store. In this short video, Valery will show you how to tell the new and the old banknotes apart, and what to do if you got scammed.

[RealPragueGuides]

Update
We made this video in August 2022. We work in Prague as tour guides and one type of a tour we do is the so-called Free Tour, where tourists can choose the price of their own choice at the end. Back when they announced the termination of the old bank notes and shops stopped accepting them, we started to receive these bank notes as tips from tourists. At first we were thought“fair enough, we can put them in bank” but few months in it started to be strange that tourists still had the outdated bank notes, so we asked them where did they get them. They usually answered that some shop gave them these bank notes, but when they tried to pay with them elsewhere they were told they don’t accept these and they have to change them in a bank (which on weekend when most tourists travel here was not possible, so they used these old bank notes as a tip for us). The purpose of this video was to point this out.

Some tourists today still have these bank notes on them. We are not sure how. From reading different Facebook groups, it seems that banks in US gave these out as well and sometimes tourists just bring them from previous travels.

[zionrion]

Always Czech your Czech bank notes so you got the right Czech notes

[isabelvazquez]

I came back from Prague before you made this video and this happened to us. Luckily, it was only a 100 note. Found out it was the old one when I tried to pay with it somewhere else. We were too busy to go to a bank, so we kept it as a souvenir. 😅

[Frajby]

if this even happened to you, there is no time limit to change this, so feel free to just exchange that in czech national bank

[tk]

Seems like a local guide might be the best way to explore your great country. I absolutely hate scammers that rip-off trusting people visiting new nations!!!

[RawFinancialNews]

Only exchange currency in official exchanges and ATM's, street scammers will use these old ones maybe; but more common are expired Belarusian rubles and Hungarian Florins. If you only use exchange/atm locations, then the only risk is if you get bad change; perhaps use small bills when buying and use card (always decline conversion.)

[HusamHmdan]

So now we need to be careful of czech crowns, Hungarian Florins and Belarusian ruble? mmmm I will stick to apple pay apparently Czech has a severe allergy to banknotes 😅

[veronikac]

It is not called scam 🤦‍♀️ if it came from Czech national bank. And you can change it at any bank (there is plenty of them eveywhere). So until all notes (1995-1999) are changed then it might happen that you will be the first one to notice.

You make people panic the way you explain. Inform but don’t scare 👍

[chrisd]

Unbelievable! At least they should have made them different in a recognisable way for their own people and for foreigners alike. This is helping people with bad intentions big time. Thank you Czeck national bank for making Tourists life much easier and raising trust up on a higher level. 🎉

[Miroslav]

Stores are OBLIGATED to take them and then stores have to exchange them they are valid until June 2024. This is info from Czech national bank.. So if somebody decline, insist.

[EM_ARCHER]

Good to know 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻 as tour guides very good looking out and staying on Now we now over here in 🇺🇸 AMERICA

[danieldronzek]

The ones after 1999 also have the EURion constellation printed on them.
For this who don't know, it's those yellow circles. If you were to put said banknotes into a photocopier, those circles would disable it.

[Mr]

Thank you thank you, you saved me. I found old Czech banknotes at my house in Sweden. I'm going to Prague in two weeks.

[chrishutchison]

RPGs taking care of us. I bet you get even more tips if you go on a 100 Spires Tour. Thanks for the info RPGs

[SS-eteg]

Thanks for the valuable information. But the year of printing is indicated there anyway or not? 😃

[andaivanova]

Happened to me yesterday with a 200 note. Cashier didn't accept it and tried to explain what to do with it, but she didn't speak english, so I got to assumption it's a fake note. Thanks for the clarification! :)

[chachachannel]

That's why it's called Check Republic

[rushfordian]

Just back from Prague, where I was given 100 crown note as change at a retail shop in Palladium Shopping Mall...so beware, even national shops will scam you with these notes (October 2023)

[CryptoBinary]

Czech is touristic Hub and it's very popular country the Czech government should made major changes in the new bank notes like the color so the tourists will not scammed especially in Prague and Brno

[Balrock]

My approach would be to use cash as little as possible - I can go months on with just a 500 in my wallet here in Prague as I just pay everywhere by card.