Ah, OK, sorry, I didn’t realise that!
As it happens, I’ve just looked in my till (where I happily accept Northern Ireland issued currency!) and I have 12 pound coins, with 7 different designs!
Very good and never ever forget ‘happy hour’ 2 drinks for the price of one.
Times of HH vary from local(e) to local(e)
Not to hijack this thread about money… :D. Here are some things to keep in mind…
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Check your money before coming back home. If you have any Scottish paper money, you will be charged a worse exchange rate if your bank will exchange it for you. See if you can get them changed for English paper.
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Spend your change. The change will not be exchanged by your bank at home, so if you’ve got 10 pounds in change, you’ll be out $18 when you get home.
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If you have travellers cheques, make note of the banks that will cash them for free. Bureau de Change will gladly charge you a fee for cashing them, and you could’ve paid for a nice pint of hand-pulled real ale instead.
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There are bills out that are not legal tender. You can change them at a bank (if they’ll let you), but businesses won’t take them. We had a few 10 pound notes that caused some consternation at a petrol station. We took them to a bank, but we had to have an account for us to change the money. Luckily we had a relative with us.
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Treat yourselves to a pint (or more) of hand-pulled real ale. Perfect thing to use up your change at the end of the day.
Northern Ireland has a space agency?!
I claim shenanigans. The Space Shuttle is our gargantuan, overpriced symbol of national pride.
I just realized that this whole misunderstanding came from another one of those linguistic differences between the U.S. and the U.K. In American English, the meaning of ‘proper’ is closer to ‘correct’ and ‘conforming to expected norms of behavior, appearance, neatness, whatever’. IMO it sounds a little priggish and fussy and I rarely use it, though other Americans may disagree with me.
From British English passages that I have read, I gather that over there ‘proper’ is closer to ‘real’ or ‘actual’, which makes a lot more sense in your context. Have I got the meanings about right?
Yes, Spectre of Pithecanthropus, you’re on the right lines. Although we do also use the word to mean ‘correct’, and it depends on context.
Are you talking about those commercial bank notes from Northern Ireland and Scotland? Aren’t those legal tender at least in those places? Or do you mean that other banks and foreign exchange offices won’t honor them?
He went to a museum on a school trip, early in his school career, and saw naked statues.
No, as has been mentioned already. Scottish banknotes aren’t legal tender anywhere, even Scotland. Of course, they’re widely accepted in Scotland, but that’s a different matter. I assume NI banknotes have similar status.
**GorillaMan ** has pointed out that “legal tender” is a fairly narrowly defined legal concept, it isn’t just another word for valid money. Scottish notes are valid money in Scotland because everybody in Scotland treats them as such.
Under Scottish law, no Scottish banknote is legal tender, and only Bank of England notes below five pounds (i.e. none of them). So even in its narrow definition, it’s pretty much meaningless.
After the Titanic and DeLorean debacles, we felt the need to tag along with something moderately more successful 