Chinese tourists detained after Paris police find thousands of €1 coins in hotel room

A French hotel owner called police after two Chinese tourists attempted to settle their bill with €1 coins, the BBC reports. 

Paris police, suspecting that the two men might be involved in a counterfeiting ring, searched their hotel room where they discovered a cache of over 3,500 one-euro coins.

On investigation however, the coins were found to be genuine. The men said they got the money from Chinese scrapyard dealers, who often find forgotten euro coins in cars sent from the continent.

Thousands of European cars are shipped to China every year to be broken down for scrap. 

"When cars owned by Europeans, and destined for scrap metal, get sent to China to be recycled, the junkyard owners often collect dozens of euro coins from each vehicle," an official source told Le Parisien. 

[Image via Flickr // Via: Boing Boing]