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Comment by secondcoming | Hacker News Reader

It’s actually not unheard of that people with Scottish banknotes sometimes encounter difficulty when using them elsewhere. Small shop owners might not know that they can be accepted. It’s not so much of an issue these days since everywhere is pretty much cashless.

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It really can vary. I remember having trouble spending Royal Bank of Scotland notes in England at the start of one trip, and after landing in Frankfurt airport for a transfer I was able to spend them without any problems in a shop which accepted EUR, GBP and USD. Also funny, here in Czech Republic I saw a money exchange place listing rates for both GBP and “SCP”, the latter having little Scottish flag beside it and a worse rate :D

The worse rate is understandable as the "resell value" is lower for a Scottish issued note than one issued by the BoE.

I am not complaining - I don’t have reason to, I earn the local currency - I’m just amused they even exchanged Scottish notes at all, and even more so that explicitly stated that they would.

For small shop owners it’s a vicious cycle. They don’t want to take in Scottish notes because many customers won’t want them as change. Customers don’t want them as change because a lot of shop owners won’t take them.

As per the article, they’re not legal tender so no one is required to take them as payment.

That's not what legal tender means. Legal tender is what must be accepted in settlement of a debt. Buying something in a shop does not involve any debt and the shopkeeper can accept or not any form of payment they like including legal tender.

£20 notes should rarely be needed for change. Have you had problems with Scottish £20 notes being accepted?

As with Northern Irish bank notes, which have a similar place in English society to the Scottish ones. The pub I went to got very confused when I presented a £10 note issued by the Bank of Ireland, which I guess would be confusing if you had no knowledge of it.

I think the phrase "legal tender" has a lot to answer for here. It's a really well known phrase, and you'll hear shop owners say they can't accept these notes because they're not "legal tender", but the actual definition of it is only applicable when settling debt in specific circumstances.

I think the Northern Irish notes have a worse and more obscure place in England than the Scottish ones, up until last year there were 4 different issuing banks in Northern Ireland: Bank of Ireland, Danske Bank, Ulster Bank and First Trust Bank [who now no longer issue].

It's quite entertaining to handover a Danish-Irish-UK pound sterling note in the UK, like somehow the viking era never ended.

Not to mention the infamous Northern bank, which Danske Bank replaced. I don't think I've ever seen a note replacement scheme happen as quickly as the one that replaced all of the green Northern bank notes for purple ones after the Northern bank robbery, which I believe is still the largest amount of money stolen from a bank at once in UK history, right?

Indeed it was. Albeit it was a moot robbery as you say, given that every note taken was known to the bank, and the whole class was obsoleted within weeks

The BoI notes also felt cheaper to me than the English ones, so maybe they look counterfeit to the untrained eye. Maybe it's good as they function as a sort of local scrip and serve there purpose of recirculating money locally, etc., but they will be converted on the other side of the sea.

A few years back, I had some older English (pre-plastic?) notes. I had to take them to a bank to exchange for "proper" notes because stores wouldn't accept them.

tbf, the actual definition of "legal tender" gives shops even more right to reject banknotes of a design they're unfamiliar with, which is why they also often refuse to accept £50 notes which are legal tender...

Maybe about 10 years ago I was trying to pay for something in a London store with a Scottish banknote and the clerk didn't want to take it. (Their manager came over and said it was fine but, yeah, it happens.)

Though last time I was in London, I dumped a few coins from my currency stash for a museum entrance donation and I didn't otherwise touch my cash at all. And don't think I touched my Euros at all when in Dublin for the same trip.

Having not used cash for three years, and seeing more places not accept cash this is less of an issue.

I’ve had Scottish bank notes declined in the past though.

The local Fish & Chip shops only accept cash, so it does help me to avoid eating unhealthy food, although if there was a way to find it when they’re using fresh oil they’d probably be far more tasty.

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