Nerdy Note Discussion: Scottish Bank Notes Aren’t Legal Tender...

adouglasmhor

Never had any trouble with Scottish notes, but once had a Northern Ireland one refused by a muppet at Luton airport who said "We can't take the Belfast ones but we can take the Dublin ones" and despite me saying it was other way round and I was a serving soldier in Belfast she stuck to her guns long enough for me to drink my pint at the counter as I put my case and wander off without paying. (Told you she was a Muppet - she actualy apologised that she couldn't serve me).

hnisc

I find it increasingly frustrating when my Northern Irish 'Mickey Mouse' Bank Notes are refused in England but also Scotland. The reason I get for the refusal is that the Queens head does not appear on the notes, but with a political situation in Northern Irelandpreventing this then surely this aspect can be thrown out. Surely because the notes state 'Sterling' then they should be excepted throughout the UK?

Buff_2

It seems strange that all Major English holiday areas, high street shops and hotels take Scottish Money...gladly.
If there is anyone who does not want Scottish Money I will accept it free of charge.Now thats 'MoneySaving' for you.
The founder of the Bank of England, a Scot,William Paterson will be turning in his grave to hear this old chestnut about Scottish Money being reserected...again!!

CitizenZero

It's about time the Bank of England was either renamed the Bank of Britain or a new bank was formed to issue British bank notes rather than have all of this nonsense of English, Northern Irish and Scottish notes.

MSE_Martin

Mac2308 wrote: »

Why wasn't the Headline "English Notes aren't legal tender in Scotland" instead? Is this another example of the English having an un-neccessary dig at us Scot's?? I am fed up going into shops in England and being looked at as if I am some sort of criminal for daring to try and use a Scottish note, but when my English wife uses an English note in Scotland she would be outraged if the legality of the note was questioned!

The more appropriate equivalent headline would've been "english notes are legal tender in england..." except that wouldn't really be an interesting nerdy fact to people...

The fact is Scottish notes aren't technically legal tender IN SCOTLAND. Yet that doesn't make them unusable there nor in England. However there is no legal right for a shopkeeper or retailer to take any form of currency - they can refuse any transaction; even if it is legal tender.

Most English shops take Scottish notes in my experience. But they do not have to. Nor do they have to take English notes.

YEt if you have a debt against you in a English court of law and offer to settle in English notes they can't refuse, but they can refuse scottish notes - both in Scotland and England.


The nerdy note is a new section of fun snippets. The intent is to show some of the quirkier side of money.

jillie1974

i'd love to try that in a shop/bar 'no i cant take your £10 note (English) its not legal tender....' if i lived in scotland of course..

MSE_Martin

A bit of appeasement to Scottish MoneySavers....

Hi folks, I can see some Scottish MoneySavers are upset about this... so I've added a note to the top post and will put something in next weeks email

Martin

crabmagyola

phizzimum wrote: »

in the post office yesterday a man was trying to buy 6000 first class stamps (yes six thousand) and paid for them with scottish bank notes. the cashier wasn't very happy about it but eventually said she would accept the money but she insisted on checking them all as she said that they've had problems with counterfeit scottish notes.

needless to say we were all queuing a long time...

Aren't Stamps legal tender?!!!:eek:

Edinburghlass_2

ericthecat wrote: »

Met a someone at a party years ago, who worked for the Bank of England and told me exactly this - he said that the Scottish Banks take out a similar number of English notes and substitute them for their own. Don't know if this is still (or even ever) true.

This certainly was the case that for every Scottish bank note printed there had to be a Bank of England note printed. In those days there were many more Scottish banks and each one had their own style of notes whereas in England it has always been just the Bank of England notes.

In fact the Jack Nicklaus £5 note went for a lot more than £5 when it was introduced by the Royal Bank of Scotland

King_Of_Fools

silverelephant wrote: »

I have had to argue with countless shop assistants over the years about using Scottish notes in England - I'd like to see the reaction if we tried to refuse to take a Bank of England bank note up here! Many, many moons ago when I started my first job as a checkout operator we were told that it didn't matter which bank was the issuer, as long as the notes said STERLING on them we had to accept them.

The fact that STERLING is written on the note does not mean it is legal currency in the UK. For example, Gibraltar issues its own banknotes that have STERLING written on them but these are definitely not legal currency in the UK.