This is nonsensical. The only even remotely rational implication is that it makes crime more difficult because large sums of money weigh more and take up more

This is nonsensical. The only even remotely rational implication is that it makes crime more difficult because large sums of money weigh more and take up more space. If you're accepting cash to evade taxes at your business though, you can just accept a bunch of 100 EUR notes as easily as 500 EUR notes. The same article says they're considering banning the $100 USD note, after they'd already pulled $500 USD from circulation many years ago. I'm not a tax evader or a criminal and I've used $100 USD notes and 500 EUR notes during my travels simply out of convenience. It's ridiculous to implicate the users of these bank notes as criminals purely on the size of the denomination.