French police found 3,700 one-euro coins
in the Chinese tourists' hotel room
Two Chinese tourists have been briefly held in France on suspicion of forgery after trying to settle their hotel bill with one-euro coins.
But banking experts checked the coins and confirmed that they were not fake.
It was later established that the two men - who have not been identified - had friends in the scrap metal trade in China and bought the coins from them.
Thousands of European cars are shipped to China for scrap every year.
They are meticulously searched before demolition - and it appears that the most common valuables left inside are one-euro coins.
BBC News - Chinese tourists detained in Paris over one-euro coins
in the Chinese tourists' hotel room
Two Chinese tourists have been briefly held in France on suspicion of forgery after trying to settle their hotel bill with one-euro coins.
But banking experts checked the coins and confirmed that they were not fake.
It was later established that the two men - who have not been identified - had friends in the scrap metal trade in China and bought the coins from them.
Thousands of European cars are shipped to China for scrap every year.
They are meticulously searched before demolition - and it appears that the most common valuables left inside are one-euro coins.
BBC News - Chinese tourists detained in Paris over one-euro coins
