More than 200 fake 10,000-yen bills were discovered at shrine and temple compounds after counterfeiters perpetrated New Year's holiday scams in at least nine prefectures, police said Monday.

Most of the bills were apparently used to buy printed fortunes or spent at stalls selling food and inexpensive souvenirs. Many had the same serial numbers.

The phony bills mirrored the old style 10,000-yen notes that remain in use after the November release of new notes designed to ward off counterfeiters.

Thirteen were found at Meiji Shrine in Tokyo on New Year's Day.

Stalls selling souvenirs and snacks on the compounds of shrines in Miyagi Prefecture reported around 100 of the fake bills by Monday.

The bills-discovered at Takekomajinja shrine in the city of Iwanuma, Osaki Hachimangu shrine in Sendai, and Shiogamajinja shrine in Shiogama-are rougher and darker than the real ones, according to police.

They all had the same serial number and lacked watermarks.

Sixteen were found at Chusonji temple in Hiraizumi, Iwate Prefecture, by Monday.

They had the same serial number that the one in Miyagi Prefecture.

Many of the bills were apparently made using a color copying machine and did not have the watermarks or irregular surface marks of the genuine bills.

In Kyoto, home to many ancient temples and shrines, police found 16 counterfeits at Fushimi Inari Taisha shrine, Heian Jingu shrine and Kiyomizudera temple.

All were used at counters selling good-luck charms and printed fortunes. Some were brownish in color, while others had the same serial numbers.

Twenty bogus bills were also used to buy charms and fortunes at Osaka's Sumiyoshi Taisha shrine in Sumiyoshi Ward.

Police said the bills were found as staff counted the days' takings. Again, none of them had watermarks, and all had the same serial number and were a little darker than real 10,000-yen notes.

At Ikutajinja shrine in Kobe's Chuo Ward and elsewhere, 20 counterfeits were found, apparently passed early Saturday.

Meanwhile in Kagoshima Prefecture, stall operators at three temples reported finding suspicious bills between a little past midnight and 9 a.m. on New Year's Day.

More than 10 others were found at stalls in the compound of Terukunijinja shrine in the city of Kagoshima, while stalls at Kirishima Jingu shrine in Kirishima and Kagoshima Jingu shrine in Hayato in the same prefecture reported finding counterfeits.

The notes were also found at convenience stores and elsewhere in Yokohama, Kawasaki and two other municipalities in Kanagawa Prefecture.

About a dozen of the bogus bills have been passed in that prefecture since Dec. 25.(IHT/Asahi: January 4,2005)