OSAKA-Bags of counterfeit 500-yen coins were discovered in a factory gutted by fire in an industrial area in northwestern Malaysia, Osaka prefectural police said.

The ironworks in Ipoh went up in smoke on the morning of Dec. 5, according to the Osaka prefectural police. Local firefighters and police investigating the blaze found several bags containing forged 500-yen coins bearing the latest design.

Some coins were finished, while others had the design stamped only on one side. Machinery apparently used to produce the counterfeits was left at the site.

Osaka prefectural police suspect many of the fake 500-yen coins discovered in Japan had been brought to this country from Malaysia.

According to news reports in Malaysia, the man who rented the plant has disappeared.

According to the reports, the man said he worked for a company based in Kuala Lumpur and had rented the factory in Ipoh for molding purposes since autumn this year.

The counterfeit 500-yen currency found there are slightly different from the genuine coins. The forged coins have no latent images on the two ``0s'' of ``500'' on the obverse. The fake coins are also darker than the genuine article.

Osaka police said the design of the counterfeit coins in Malaysia closely resembles about 60 fakes found since mid-November in Sakai, Osaka Prefecture, and Yodogawa Ward in Osaka, Yokohama, and Sasayama in Hyogo Prefecture.

Osaka police on Dec. 3 arrested an Indonesian flight attendant of Garuda Indonesia Airways on suspicion of using a forged 500-yen coin at a supermarket in Sakai. The 33-year-old suspect told police she did not know the coin was counterfeit. She said she received it in Bali, according to police.

On Dec. 4, three Malaysian trainees at a metal processing company in Yodogawa Ward told police they had 500-yen coins that might be fakes.

The trainees told police they had about 80 coins and had used some of them in Sasayama and Osaka. They said they received the coins as part of their wages from their employer in Malaysia.(IHT/Asahi: December 20,2003) (12/20)