American banks like to play this game where they pretend other countries don’t have banks. I’ve run into the Citibank issue mentioned above—even when they OWN the foreign bank, they pretend it doesn’t exist.
You say your bank won’t take it. Fair enough; have you asked to speak to a branch manager to find out how to cash it? What I would do is escalate it within your bank until you find someone who can. They CAN accept the check, you know, it’s just not worth the cost for them to do so, and the bank teller probably doesn’t know what all the options are.
(In the old days, I’d have said “sign it over to me and I’ll mail you an American check for $23” but I doubt if my British bank would take a third-party cheque anymore.)