AIBU to think that sterling is sterling- not "foreign currency"?

[carabos]

I went to Belfast for a meeting yesterday. I bought a cup of tea in the airport while waiting to fly back last night. I was given a £10 sterling note issued by Ulster Bank and a £5 sterling note issued by Bank of Ireland in my change. I thought nothing of it and put them in my purse.

Today, I was told by Tesco that I couldn't use the notes in the store as "they aren't legal tender, they are foreign currency". When I pointed out they aren't foreign currency, they are sterling notes, they responded "they aren't the same sterling. They are Irish sterling". .

When I pointed out that Ireland uses the Euro, not sterling, so they couldn't be Irish, they asked where I had got them. I said "Belfast". They said, patiently because by now they think I'm an idiot, "that's in Ireland".

I said that Belfast is in the island of Ireland, it's not in Ireland, it's in the UK. The Tesco chap said "whatever, it's still foreign currency".

AIBU to think that I'm right here?

Heard back from Tesco via Twitter. They say the store should have accepted the notes.

They aren't legal tender.

They should, but they don't have to.

Take them to any bank and they will give you Bank of England notes in exchange, no charge.

I never travel outside NI without Bank of England notes. There are lots of ATMs marked 'BofE Sterling' all through Belfast City Centre.

Be glad you didn't have a plastic fiver. You might have been arrested for forgery. [bugrin]

late joiner - NI and S notes are not legal tender and shops can refuse them, mainly IME they do because in E/W they legally can't give them as change. I have sympathy with small businesses/shops refusing them on that grounds but Tesco (ffs) should be able to cope with a couple now and then. I presume they do a bank run more than once a week?

I live in London but am from S originally and every time I go to visit family/friends I end up with bundles of them. They're quite entertaining - the Clydesdale Bank ones at the moment have spiders on them - it's like fairy money! (NB I think I am allowed to say this.) I try to get my incontrovertibly English DH to spend them as I could never assert "they are legal tender" knowing they're not, and the slightly more nuanced explanation feels arsey in a shop. If you are landed with the Scottish version of FaeriePounds, get a taxi from Euston or King's Cross (where the trains come in from Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Inverness) or go to shops round KX and Eu and you should be fine.

I know my own relatives in NI regard themselves as Irish but they had family murdered on Bloody Sunday. I think its a very individual thing based not only on religion but on much more complex cultural experiences.

polly so it seems, but Tesco customer care have come back and said they should have been accepted, supporting what was said by a poster upthread that they can be accepted if both parties agree.