Scottish Money

[Sheik Yir Erse]

Was reading today that there is a private members bill to make it legally binding for Scottish notes to be accepted throughout the UK.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/7841273.stm

[Beachcomber]

Was reading today that there is a private members bill to make it legally binding for Scottish notes to be accepted throughout the UK.

Yes, I saw that too. Be interesting to see how it gets on. It does seem daft that BofE notes are legal tender but BofS(etc) notes aren't.

Bill: Have you ever had any trouble spending Scottish notes in Corby?

[bill]

No never Beachcomber,though my sister did.A few years back she was down from Campbeltown and got quite upset when one guy wouldn't accept her Scottish note.She stood her ground and he accepted it eventually.

[elaine]

If anyone wants to send me down a few notes I will let you know how i get on using them .....

[Mousireid]

It would be great if they would accept BoS notes. Every time I travel 'Home' I have to be wary of my BoS notes if spending any amount of time in England just in case to avoid any hassle, luckily I am only travelling through the London airports most of the time and have never had a problem there. I just hang on to all my money for the next trip but it would be one less thing to worry about - and one less thing that frustrates/annoys me! When people ask 'what is the difference between Scotland and England? I thought they were one and teh same' this is one of many points I use!

[Govangirl]

After the last lot of posts on this I looked into it and it seems that Scottish banknotes are not legal tender - only Bank of England notes are because they are backed by the Bank of England and their securities. Although Scottish notes can be used for trading they are I believe legal as a currency but not 'legal tender' as they are issued by retail banks, not a central bank like the Bank of England. And as we've seen, a retail bank COULD go to the wall. In fact, I don't think any note is now legal tender in Scotland, even Bank of England ones.

[LANDROVER ROGER]

Just checked"legal tender"on Wikipedia.I am even more confused now.

[Mary G]

I am in England most weeks for work ... this has been the case for the last 20 years. Because I am there each week I only ever arrive with Scottish notes. Every week. NOT ONCE anyone refused my money. I even joke to the odd taxi driver who has a bit of a moan about it that the exchange rate will see him better off

Seriously, I think there are more important issues for legislators to attend to right now.

[EMDEE]

One of the ironies of all of this is that the Bank of England was founded by a Scotsman, William Paterson of Dumfriesshire, in 1694. He was also associated with the setting up of the Bank of Scotland in 1695, which was originally the central bank of the then independent Scotland. In spite of this, he was a supporter of the Union in 1707.

[dougie]

let me add a little to this story.several years ago my mother sent over here to ontario canada sone money for my kids birthday.there was a mixture of bank of scotland and england notes inthe bundle.i promptly took them to the bank to deposit in the kids account and they wanted to give me a lesser exchange value for the bos ones.i guess the
situation wasnt resolved until i spoke with the manager......i no longer deal with that bank.

[£3.73]

After the last lot of posts on this I looked into it and it seems that Scottish banknotes are not legal tender - only Bank of England notes are because they are backed by the Bank of England and their securities.

It is a fact that banknotes were once backed by tangible reserves like gold (the gold standard) ... hence the phrase "it's as good as gold" ...

These days, bank notes are backed by no more than "a promise" .... (read one)

.... it would seem to me, that since no-ones notes are actually backed by anything more than "a promise" that Scots notes are every bit as valid as anyone else's .....

I wonder what happened to all the reserves ?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstop ... llion.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold_standard

[katya]

I personally haven't had any problems with using Scottish notes outwith Scotland. I used them on a few occasions last year in London and exchanged them with Reis in Brazil without question.
Kat x

[blueboyno1]

Quite a few times in the oast i have had problems exchanging BOS notes in england .The last time was abou tfour years ago when i took my brother with me down to Ramsgate to help me with some work for a couple of days .We checked into a B.B and the landlord asked to be paid in advance, when i handed over BOS notes he refused them and called us cheats and fraudsters and such .My brother being a real son of Scotland argued the point with him which resulted in his wife phoning the police and we were taken to the cop shop and questioned for over two hours then released without charge .I always carry BOE notes now so as not to put myself in the same position.The wife and i travel to Turkey at least twice a year and most exchange offices there will exchange BOS notes but at a lower rate of exchange .Now that is a real insult.

[katya]

That is ridiculous! I wonder how they would react to Northern Irish notes

[History]

Nrthern Ireland notes are quite common here especially in the summer when the yachts from over the channel come in.

The English seem to be the only ones with the problem with anything other than B O E notes. Imagine being taken to the police staion over it. Just shows the English police are not very bright. Surely someone at the station would have known better. Doesn't say much for their fraud squad. Hope they were suitably affronted.

Regarding Turkey, why would you want to exchange your currency over there in the first place. I have been places where they won't even take travellers cheques. Always best to be prepared with the local currency. I never take travellers cheques now.