nonthaburi

Hmmmfff...

It's not all bad. There was a nice breeze this morning.

scrubbedexpat141

It's probably lovely now Scot47's gone. Cluttering the place up with his ramblings, anger and misery.

hnd

Interesting piece here about 'legal tender' and Scottish bank notes in particular:

https://www.scotbanks.org.uk/banknot...-position.html

scrubbedexpat141

I assume it's because they're less popular. They can't shift them if you go and buy pounds from them because you don't want silly money either.

Only thing I can think of...

Ditzy

The reason you get less for Scottish notes than English notes, is because English notes are underwritten by the Bank of England (i.e. the Government). Scottish banks who issue Scottish notes are not, so therefore there is more risk to the note and they are worth slightly less.

And that, is your Fact of the Day.

jam25mack

I don't think thats quite correct tho. Both are Sterling and both are underwritten by the BoE, however, yes Scottish banks do have permission to produce their own notes.

All that said I have never had a Scottish note declined in the UK (lived in Scotland for 9 yrs and was down south a lot). I've had a few grumbles but a bit of a menacing scowl and "its sterling and its illegal to refuse it" did the trick every time. As for outside the UK, I've never been silly enough to take / try to exchange Scottish notes. Thats just asking for trouble. Some countries can be proper arsey. Bulgaria a while back wouldn't even take notes which had any writing on them.

martinbkk

I've had that problem changing QR in Bangkok. Back before I was legit and being paid in cash I would go home every 7 weeks or so. Go into our bestist exchange shop and drop my wad on the counter, the girls would pick through it and turn their noses up at at seemingly the slightest of imperfections.

Maxima

Speaking of imperfections, in Jakarta I have seen exchanges offering you less local currency for a folded 100$ bill, as opposed to an unfolded one

Ditzy

Jam25, any notes issued by "Clydesdale Bank" etc in Scotland are not underwritten by the BoE and that's why they are worth less.

Disclaimer - if Clydesdale Bank still exists, I've been away for a looong time. :-P

mikelincs

When I visited Russia in the early 1990s then you had to have pristine US dollar bills, no creasing, no writing etc, luckily most of the UK currency sellers were well aware and ensured that they were unmarked, the more interesting thing was that there were people, stood in the banking halls, offering a better exchange rate, and the authorities did nothing about them, we changed some with one of these people, and the Russian person we were with went over to the bank teller to check that the notes we were being given were legal as they were of a denomination she had never seen before, the teller assured her the notes were OK and we completed the deal.

jam25mack

Ahhh, yes, I think you may be right, that rings a bell. The RBS and BoS ones are Sterling though.

scot47

The Scottish banks that issue notes (Royal Bank of Scotland, Bank of Scotland and Clydesdale) have to leave on deposit at the BoE sums in sterling equivalent to the value of the notes they issue.