on the front. The micro-text is sharp, not blurred. A security thread, embedded in the banknote paper. The thread will appear as a dark stripe when held up to the light. The word "EURO" and the value is embedded in tiny letters on the thread. Perforations in the hologram which will form the euro symbol. There are also small numbers showing the value. A matted surface; the note paper is made out of pure cotton, which feels crisp and firm, but not limp or waxy. A serial number. Crime The value of the note is much greater than many of the largest circulating notes of other major currencies, such as the United States 100-dollar bill. Thus a large monetary value can be concentrated into a small volume of notes. This facilitates crimes that deal in cash, including money laundering, drug dealing, and tax evasion. There have been calls to withdraw the note for this reason. However, some of the currencies the euro replaced had widely used high-value notes, including the 5,000 Austrian schillings (€363), the 1,000 Dutch guilders (€454), the 1,000 Deutsche Marks (€511), and 500 Latvian lats (€711). Even though there were some valuable banknotes in the national currencies of Germany, Austria and the Netherlands, the number of banknotes was relatively small compared to the euro banknotes. At the end of the year 2000 there were 89.20 million 1,000 Deutsche Mark banknotes, 13.97 million 5,000 Austrian Schilling banknotes and 13.28 million 1,000 Dutch Guilder banknotes in circulation. Latvia had a negligible number of 500 lat banknotes. In contrast the European Central Bank ordered the production of 371 million €500 banknotes before 1 July 2002. In particular, Spain had a quarter of all these high-value bills within its borders in 2006. This concentration of €500 notes is far greater than expected for an economy of Spain's size, as prior to conversion to euro the largest banknote was 10,000 Spanish pesetas, worth €60. These notes are rarely seen in every-day commerce – they have been nicknamed "Bin Ladens" by the populace (as the presence and appearance of the notes are well-known, but the notes themselves are quite difficult to find). The financial analyst Jeffrey Robinson had warned back in 1998 before issuance that he believed that the €500 note would be used mostly for drug trafficking and money laundering. British and Spanish police are using the bills to track money laundering.