Is Scottish money really alien to the English??

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ChocLover

I don't know anywhere that takes Euro's where I live in England!

Basement Bob

Are Scottish & Northern Irish notes legal tender?

In short â€˜Noâ€™ these notes are not legal tender; only Bank of England notes are legal tender but only in England and Wales.
The term legal tender does not in itself govern the acceptability of banknotes in transactions. Whether or not notes have legal tender status, their acceptability as a means of payment is essentially a matter for agreement between the parties involved. Legal tender has a very narrow technical meaning in relation to the settlement of debt. If a debtor pays in legal tender the exact amount he owes under the terms of a contract, he has good defence in law if he is subsequently sued for non-payment of the debt. In ordinary everyday transactions, the term â€˜legal tenderâ€™ has very little practical application.

Beanco. You work in a bank & don't even know how to spell Sterling?. God help us. Stirling is a town up here.

vambosthirdincarnation

I gave a Scottish one pound note to a checkout girl in Asda once for a pint of milk. She held it up to the light, looked at me carefully, then put it in the till and gave me change for a fiver.

kevina p

Hi The supermarket that i work at accepts Scottish notes, so long as they have Sterling printed on them.

Jim

I remember getting change for a tenner when I handed over a Scottish fiver in a fish and chip shop, so I suppose there might be a reason for their caution LOL

You might find that a lot of places in Scotland will not accept high denomination English banknotes because there are so many forgeries going around.

Camilla the First

I am Scottish and do you know why I don't mind my money not being accepted = because I am so happy I can come back up here to civilization after listening to one more boring effing Englishman spinning out his half pint of bitter. What is that stuff they nurse. No I don't mind at all. You be as racially prejudiced against the Scots as you like because I will wear my newly made fivers like a badge. At least we are not so rude and have some respect for other people's money (some more than others!)

squeakycheek

It is basically because you hardly ever see it, even in the north (well yorkshire) and when you do see one it could be purple and pink spots and legal tender and we'd not have a clue. So you have to check them carefully!

203

You find the reluctance to accept Scottish notes increases the further south you go.

I try and spend up my Scottish notes before heading back into England now.

I've had checkout staff call supervisors over to ask if they can accept it, UV checks for forgeries, stories about them all being forgeries and all sorts.

*rolls eyes

My Scottish friends say that "English" notes can sometimes get the same reaction though.

hazyharry

I work as a barman in suffolk and regularly get scot notes in my wages due to the high amount of tourists we have in. I am yet to have a problem spending it anywhere that I have gone. The last time I refused a note was the day the new english Â£20 came in and i didn't know about it! It looked pretty different in my defence!

stardustlost87

It really bugs me how alot of shops in England won't take Scottish or Northern Irish bank notes, apparently by law they don't have to accept it even tho it's all the same currency! I'm from England and go to uni in N.Ireland so whenever I come home I can't spend any notes I (rarely, lol) still have in my purse! I think more ppl recognise and might accept payment with Scottish notes but most ppl don't know in N.Ireland there are loads of different designs of bank notes so they think its counterfeit and look at you well weirdly if you ask if they take N.Irish notes!

Fiona F

I understand that there will be some people who might not have had much dealings with Scottish currency but they way they sometimes act like you are trying to defraud them in some way is embarrassing so I don't bother because I know what's coming. I always swap over my notes to English if I'm going south of the border just to save myself the whole "it's British legal tender you HAVE to accept it" argument, I have better things to do!
It's funny though because I have dealt with Irish notes a few times and I gave them a double glance, realised it said Northern Ireland and carried on as normal.
It's not something that bothers me TOO much because I try to ignore the Scotland vs England bullcrap... I think it's all a bit pathetic and if somebody doesn't like me because of where I'm from, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have liked them too much anyway.
I can't judge the entire populace in England in one swift blow because I'm pretty sure that they are not all the same... but all of the above replies with the stupid assumptions either way are the kind of people who fuel the fire...

Red Campion

The further north you are in England, eg in the Lake District, the easier it is to spend Scottish notes without difficulty.

Not surprising really. When I worked in the hotel trade there many years ago we got Scottish notes every day and accepted them without question.

mal g

Just to put forward my own experience. I find that North of (about) York there is usually little problem with Scottish notes, but South of there--- hmmm! problems.
I agree with other answerers who state that, strictly speaking, there is no such thing as a'legal' Scottish Bank Note.

beanco

I live in scotland but am originally from Kent - I refuse to change my scottish money to english when I go home. It is illegal to refuse it,( I work in a bank ) - it is stirling, just like the english pound. Ive never had any bother, I just had it over and get my change. But I know that some places are very reluctant to take it - if push came to shove and police were called - you would be in the right.
I was in Menzies down south once - they refused - I called the manager - as what they seemed to forget was that their head office was situated in Edinburgh!!!

PS there are just as many english forgeries about, we get them in scotland!

Stephen M

there is good reason for it being closely scrutinised. We don't see a lot of scottish notes in England and because of that there is a major problem of scottish forgeries being used in England because we don't know the difference between a real one and a fake one.

Its nothing personal against the scots. and also if you gave me a euro i wouldn't scrutinise it i'd just give it back to you

10 out of 10

the thing is we both have the pound but it is a different pound. what should happen is if we can use English pound in Scotland then Scottish pound should be able to be used in England so it is fair

Countess

Not really,i live near the border,i think the more down south you go,the less chance you'll see it.

Jillot

Further to all the comments already, Scottish money is NOT legal tender in England OR Scotland!!! See link below. It's a technicality for Scotland of course but also another reason they get looked on suspiciously in England is that there are 3 different types produced by 3 different banks! Generally now I dont have a problem getting them accepted but when I was a kid we used to go to England on summer holidays and had to go to the bank to get spending money and had to ask for English bank notes as they were really not generally accepted then. So although some will take them legally they dont actually have to!

Uncle Joe

The main reason for this is that Scottish banknotes are not very common in England, which means many shopkeepers do not really know what they're supposed to look like, so they are likely to be refused due to fear of counterfeits. This unfamiliarity is exacerbated by the fact that three separate Scottish banks (Bank of Scotland, Royal Bank, Clydesdale Bank) all issue their own banknotes.

Also, strictly speaking only Bank of England notes are considered legal tender so there is no obligation to accept Scottish notes as payment for goods.

matty r

i dont even know what scottish notes look like, and i assume maybe people in shops have never seen it before so think its fake or something. no idea why someone would decline it without inspecting it first though.

apparently NI notes need an explanation to be accepted in Britain though.

Camp Pete

There are a lot of fakes ... Also we do not see that many so we don't realy know what to look for ...

I hope that helps

MICHAEL B

It's because the Scottish very rarely spend any money.
So to see it in England is a rarity.

Rozzy

Scottish money is legal tender in England.

Elliott J

LOL. I am an American. I visited Edinburgh last Sept. and when I went to England I still had a few hundred pounds from RBS. Guess what. Everywhere I spent the RBS marked pounds in England I got some type of comment! Mostly a wince and a OH, you were in Scotland!

Loved my visit to both Scotland and England.

Videos of recent trip if you care to see.

Scotland:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gmIDWLqD-c

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hx0QnbhRvW0

England:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXH4uqxMUtI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5099yjrqrXc

http://www.youtube.com/watchv=NVCAWP2rKOE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2vXIiKhZhQ

banjet15

The Euro is used in London every day but the Scottish note is hardly seen.

ROBERT S

Scottish money can be refused as legal tender UK it up to the receiver to take it as payment do a search on google Scottish banknotes are not "legal tender" ie someone owed money can legally refuse to accept them. In Scotland, earlier legislation restricted legal tender status to Bank of England one pound notes. When these were withdrawn, in 1983, the legislation was not amended. So since then, Scotland has had no "legal tender" banknotes

couttsie1974

Hi I am scottish, and that has always bugged me whenever I travel to England. People treat us scots like foreigners sometimes, not fair, just poor uneducated people I guess :)

Phoebs

Hiya!

Its all down to the banks. Apparently scottish notes can be easily faked. This is why most shops and department stores in the UK won't accept them. I used to travel frequently between scotland and England, and I always had to make sure that if I had any notes left, I changed them up in a shop before I went to the airport or on the plane. Most of them accept scottish notes.

Phoebsx

debbie

you can spend it in some places my dads a taxi driver and takes it all ov the time

Angel

Yeah. Scotts are so tight.

atominfiltrators

You are allowed to spend Scottish money in the UK but some people think it is unlucky because Scotland used to be England's enemy.

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