Comments on: The financial crisis and Scottish money

By: Mike Haddad

Mike Haddad — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 15:01:53 +0000

#3 with a bit of “It’s probably a hassle to switch the notes” on the side.

By: Caroline

Caroline — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 11:21:24 +0000

Being Scottish and living in London, I find that often I have my Scottish bank notes refused, mainly in smaller, independent shops in the capital. I find this practise infuriating and quite offensive and I put it down to the complete ignorance of the person behind the till. I say the Scots should simply stop accepting English notes.

By: claire

claire — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 20:22:41 +0000

same thing happens to northern irish bank notes in england. airports in belfast dispense english bank notes and have big signs telling you so. but that has been the same as long as i can remember.
not sure if northern irish notes are not technically legal tender – in fact i have never heard of this technicality before. as far as i know, the notes do indicate that they are in pounds sterling.

By: Hilary Barlow

Hilary Barlow — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 12:24:50 +0000

That is very strange. As for explanations, I vote #1, but I'm not economics-savvy enough to answer your question. On a bit of a tangent, are you familiar with the stereotype that Scots are cheap?

By: TheophileEscargot

TheophileEscargot — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 08:43:27 +0000

As I recall, it’s always been a bit of a problem getting rid of Scottish notes in England.

But another factor may be that, in London at least, lots of people working customer service jobs are fairly recent arrivals in the UK. They’ve never heard of Scottish notes, have no way of telling fake notes from real ones, and find the whole concept of different regional notes for the same currency rather bizarre and implausible.