Are Scottish notes legal tender and accepted in England?

[angle20]

A bit of background from Wikipedia:

 

Bank of England notes are the only banknotes that are legal tender in England and Wales. Scottish, Northern Ireland, Jersey, Guernsey and Manx banknotes are not legal tender in England and Wales. However, they are not illegal under English law and creditors and traders may accept them if they so choose.

 

In Scotland and Northern Ireland no banknotes – not even ones issued in those nations – are legal tender, although Bank of England one pound notes were when they existed: Bank of England notes of under five pounds value are legal tender. Scottish and Northern Irish notes are 'promissory notes' (defined as legal currency), essentially cheques made out from the bank to 'the bearer', as the wording on each note says.

 

The UK Treasury has proposed extending legal tender status to Scottish banknotes. The proposal has been opposed by Scottish nationalists who claim it would reduce the independence of the Scottish banking sector.[2]

 

Most of the notes issued by the note-issuing banks in Scotland and Northern Ireland have to be backed by Bank of England notes held by the issuing bank. The combined size of these banknote issues is well over a billion pounds. To make it possible for the note-issuing banks to hold equivalent values in Bank of England notes, the Bank of England issues special notes with a denomination of one million pounds for internal use by the other banks[3].

 

[cgksheff]

There are several pubs in Sheffield that will not take a Scotch £20.

[Heyesey]

They are clearly marked as 'Sterling' (unlike Northern Irish notes, which are not), and therefore legal currency. A retailer who refuses to accept them is acting illegally himself.

 

Not so.

 

"Legal tender has a very narrow and technical meaning in the settlement of debts. It means that a debtor cannot successfully be sued for non-payment if he pays into court in legal tender. It does not mean that any ordinary transaction has to take place in legal tender or only within the amount denominated by the legislation."

 

In other words, a retailer can refuse English currency, if he really wants to tick off all of his customers, and he still would not be breaking the law.

 

Scottish notes are not legal tender, but there's no good reason for any shop not to accept them; even so some places will refuse to take them. If this is likely to cause you embarassment (I wouldn't care, I'd embarass the shopkeeper for being stupid and not knowing what notes are acceptable...) then it's safer to just change them at a bank and avoid any possible problems.

 

 

*edited because I didn't know that no Scottish currency is legal tender - live and learn*

[Andy]

They are clearly marked as 'Sterling' (unlike Northern Irish notes, which are not), and therefore legal currency. A retailer who refuses to accept them is acting illegally himself.

 

Legal currency means somthing which must be accepted in payment of a debt. It's not illegal to refuse legal tender, however, if a creditor was to do so, the debt would cease to exist.

 

However, in a shop, no debt exists to the shopkeeper, since he can refuse to sell the goods. So he's not obliged to accept any currency - even legal tender (which Scottish notes aren't anyway). He could insist in being paid in postage stamps, tomatoes or broken down tractors if he wanted. If you didn't agree, then the transaction wouldn't take place.

 

Remember that every business has the right to refuse service, provided this is not on the grounds of race/disability.

[Heyesey]

Legal currency means somthing which must be accepted in payment of a debt. It's not illegal to refuse legal tender, however, if a creditor was to do so, the debt would cease to exist.

 

And even at that, only if the debt was being paid off via a court.

[kwtcl1]

where i work on a market stall we have not taken them for bout 2 years now due to there been alot of fak ones around an many shops don't accept

[Rich]

That's the reason most places won't have them, cos there's so many duds around and it's hard to tell sometimes what's real and what's a dud, so it's safer to ban them all.

 

That being said though, I remember when I worked at Boots in Meadowhall in late 1997, a guy once came in with an English £50 note, and I'd been taught in my NVQ retail course at Loxley College that in many cases £50 notes weren't legal so I queried it, bloke wasn't too happy. but I wasn't wrong, I was following my previous training.

[mr craig]

I think its quite funny how some places wont except Scottish notes but are quite happy to except euros.

[PhilipB]

Live in Scotland and travel over the border regularly.

Never had any problem with shops, large or small, taking them.

All motorway services etc, no problem.

Did see a card in a shop window in Whitby this year that said they wouldn't accept Scottish notes though.

[rubydazzler]

p.s i know £1 notes aren't legal tender in england but my daughter was given a £1 note from a relative in scotland and on return to shefield it was mistaken for a fiver! lol

 

Yes that happened to me, I was a bit harrassed at the time and the bloke offering it took the change of a fiver, the git! I'm sure he did it on purpose. Might as well just have stolen the goods really, as least I wouldn't have been £4 cash down, as well as the cost of the goods!