It's legal tender

[iwoulddoanything]

I'm sure by the title, you can guess where I live

Every day, without fail, I get asked for English notes back in change (manage a large store but often have to jump on tills). Or if I'm in England (actually where I'm from btw), they won't accept my money. I just don't get it. It is legal tender but people still refuse it (when I pay) or don't want it in change (when they're visiting Scotland ). It actually has sterling written on it when English notes don't as far as I'm aware. I just don't get it. And people wonder why Scottish people are fed up of being part of a union which seems our money (the exact same as 'english' money) as less than, or a phrase I hear every few weeks, 'monopoly' money. AIBU?

For you to be calling people who are typically minimum wage workers or not much more, in the service and hospitality sectors that tend to be disproportionately migrant anyway, arrogantly Anglocentric, that is what is batshit Agnes. And frankly rather gross.

Using the imaginary migrant worker as a way of trying to frame someone as xenophobic for calling out xenophobia is what's actually gross (and really quite disgusting on your part because you're also implying that there's something uniquely incapable about migrant workers in England alone that makes them somehow unable to recognise UK currency).

I'm always so disgusted and saddened when people resort to these kinds of tactics in a discussion to try to discredit anyone who doesn't tow the line. The reality is that any adopted position whereby one dominant culture is the "default" and anything else is "other" is xenophobia. The currency issue might seem trivial in isolation but in a wider context it isn't because it perpetuates exactly this.

However, I do wish people would stop stirring it as a grievance to try and justify independence. Nobody refuses the notes out of racial hatred of Scots, ffs- it’s just the unfamiliarity and fear of forgeries.

No one wants independence because of bank notes, but it another example of how Scotland is marginalised, misunderstood and it's difference not understood. We have a separate legal, education and government system and yet on here people will state clearly they live in Scotland when seeking advice on these topics and loadsof people weigh in with advice pertaining to England. I'm English born myself but the ignorance about the Scots and Scotland and the condescension from substantial numbers of English people is extremely grating and the idea of a union of equals is a joke.

Imaginary migrant worker? Fuck me. You really are scraping the barrel now agnes. The retail and service sectors in England are disproportionately migrant and you will not erase that simply because it's inconvenient to your argument. That you start talking about being disgusted whilst trying to pretend that calling you out for using Anglocentric about a disproportionately migrant sector is somehow casting aspersions on their competence is astounding.

Also disagree with this, having worked in several retail outlets in both rural NI and Belfast...they're not even remotely rare.

I'm really surprised by this because I rarely see them. When we were in England a couple of months ago, my husband and I remarked that we didn't even know what colour English banknotes are these days.

But I haven't worked in a shop in Belfast since it became a popular tourist destination, so I'm probably basing my view on how it was years ago. Apologies.

Where in NI are you now isabelle? I can see how maybe Belfast would have been different when the place weren't so full of English and Scottish tourists like these days! We did used to go to visit family when I was a kid but I can't remember anything about what the shops took then. I don't think it was stag and hen central during the Troubles!

i like them and when i go to scotland i make a point in getting Scottish notes - ideally the ones with Otters on - my girls LOVE them and they love grandma giving them 'ottie money'

I live in the English midlands and visit Scotland regularly. Never had any bother spending Scottish notes when I get home - but I realise it must be irritating for Scots when it happens.

Like many stupid things in the UK this really needs a tidy up so everyone gets fair treatment.

Yes, imagine if businesses in Scotland started refusing English notes from tourists south of the border!

To be honest, it doensn't cut it, this hand-wringing 'o we're not familiar, we don't see much of them...it's too difficult' - you're a business, take steps to make yourself familiar, to protect yourself from fraud if that's what you're concerned about - the onus should be on you, not your customers.

It's maybe a little bit harder for businesses to do lots of things - like properly accommodate people with disabilities for eg. That means the business needs to step up and find a good way of providing service to everyone, it doesn't mean they should turn some people away.

They're not being turned away. The analogy with disability is thus inappropriate, because having a Scottish or NI banknote in your possession isn't an innate characteristic you can do nothing about and that you cant access the facility because of having. By all means take the view that shops should accept all legal UK currency and the law should change, but please don't liken it to disability.

Where in NI are you now isabelle?

I live rurally but most of my shopping would be in Belfast because that's where I work. But I suppose I nearly always use my debit card in Belfast whereas out in the country is where I'd be buying a pint of milk, so it makes sense that I don't see any English notes because the only cash machine in a ten mile radius of home gives out Bank of Ireland notes

@WellButterMyArse I'm making the analogy that just because something is difficult for a business that doesn't mean they shouldn't have a responsibility for doing it.

Haven't been to Scotland for years and was shocked that they still have £1 notes!

Ah ok isabelle that makes sense. I'm generally in Belfast or surrounding, can see it might be different if you're in a low tourist area.

I know what you were doing suggestion and I was asking that you don't compare two things that are very different. It feels minimising.

Haven't been to Scotland for years and was shocked that they still have £1 notes!

Bank of Scotland apparently issues a small number of £1 notes. I haven't actually seen one in years though.

I work in a shop and we except Scottish notes, but we are not aloud to give them out, we save them until the end of the day and pod them.

I work in a bank, in England. The reason most places won't take scottish/Irish notes is because the staff get zero training on what a real note looks like. Someone will then inevitably take a fake one, losing the owner/company money, so they then put a ban on taking them full stop. You'll also find that many local stores refuse to accept English £50 notes for the same reason.

I always accepted Scottish & Irish money when I worked in retail (SE county town and London). We banked it with everything else, no dramas. When I was new or it was a design I'd not seen before I double checked it with someone if I could. We were of the opinion that if the company wanted us to spot Scottish/Irish forgeries, they should've trained us to do so.

"Non-English" UK notes often freak new staff out so it's fair enough that they check them by a senior, as long as they're polite and don't treat customers like forgers. Getting customers to take them was a pain though, we usually just banked them ASAP as people get really shrill about it. I've only ever had a Scottish note refused once, in Superdrug in Guildford and the very young cashier looked terrified of it. She wouldn't call anyone to verify it for her - which did annoy me as she also couldn't tell me for certain that they didn't accept them as a rule. She handled it badly.

I've only worked in 1 place that didn't take £50s. It was a 1-till charity shop and because people rarely bought £45+ of goods, they just wiped out our float. I had to accept one from someone who (supposedly) spoke no English and was buying a £4 t-shirt and kept shoving it back over the counter at me and didn't understand attempts to explain or refusal of sale. Luckily the manager that day carried a lot of cash in her own wallet, including £50s and happily swapped some smaller notes and coins out of her own purse for the £50 out the till.

Why is our money worth less than yours or why are you afraid of more forgeries when it's just as likely for forgeries for English money?

No it's not just as likely English notes will be forgeries. Their construction makes the new polymer bank notes very very very difficult to fake (The statistic on how many fake polymer English bank notes have been found in circulation is in single figures).

Scottish notes are made of different materials and it is easier to make a more realistic looking fake.

Add to that there are so few Scottish notes in circulation that English businesses hardly come across them, and despite what other posters may claim, there is no one technology which works on all the different UK notes in circulation to prove whether they are fake or genuine.....

Can you really not see @iwoulddoanything why English businesses are reluctant to accept them?

Not sure if it’s changed but when I was a student I worked in retail and we had to report all Scottish notes to the manager before accepting them. Reason being, many were forged. I actually caught a couple of fake Scottish notes out in my time so it wasn’t a myth.

When I worked in a cash handling role we had been given no training on recognising scottish notes so we were not comfortable accepting one. Our boss did sort this out afterwards though.

Wasn’t it the Clydesdale 20s that we’re rife for forgeries not so long ago? The corner shop where PIL lived in Scotland wouldn’t take one of the £20s a couple of years ago as there was too many good fakes and they were struggling as it was.

It’s much the same as places not taking £50 notes imo - it’s much harder to spot a fake when you are not used to handling them.

People are just being awkward not accepting Scottish bank notes. They keep up this pretense that it's harder to bank and all that but it's not. A pen or UV light will sort a fake out very easily. English bank notes are faked more than Scottish or Irish notes.

It's just that 'we want to be awkward' thing. In Scotland, we will accept English and Irish notes easily. As someone who has banked money in every single job I have had, I can tell you straight up that it doesn't matter what bank issued the note, it will be accepted by the bank. There is no area on a pay in book that tells you to specify the bank that issued the note so it's all total bollocks

I used to be a bank cashier and people used to bring them in, concerned as they couldn't tell if they were genuine in the way they could a Bank of England note. I'm English and have since moved to Scotland and neither me or my husband have ever had any trouble with using Scottish notes when we are in England. I think, with the new style notes all feeling the same, things should improve a bit.

you're a business, take steps to make yourself familiar, to protect yourself from fraud if that's what you're concerned about - the onus should be on you, not your customers.

This. I was in a big garden centre near Lincoln earlier this year and they had a giant poster at the checkouts which showed examples of all Scottish, NI and I think English bank notes. I'm fine with small rural shops saying no but the big chains I expect better of.