Generally speaking, will the currency-change counter at a post office in London change Scottish banknotes into regular English ones? I’ve just come into about thirty quid in Scottish notes, and would very much like to be able to use them.
Post Offices will definitely do it: not just at currency change, but the regular counter. Banks too, regular counters. IIRC, shops aren’t obliged to take them, though many do: it’s usually down to the individual cashier.
Excellent, thanks (and my landlord thanks you as well).
Spot on - legally, it’s an individual agreement for each specific transaction. And you might have problems with banks - some might want to charge you a fee, similar to if you try to change huge quantities of copper coins.
Taxi drivers and pub landlords, on the other hand, cherish the opportunity to accept these unusual items.
FWIW, I tried to break the Scottish five-pound note at a Tesco this morning, and was told that they didn’t take them. I then walked into a bank and they changed them for free.
Out of curiosity, if they’re the same currency, why does the Bank of Scotland bother to print its own notes? Do they have different coins up there, too?
And just to verge off-topic, are those not the ugliest bits of money humans could have possibly come up with? They look like something a 10-year-old with basic desktop publishing software came up with.
The Bank of Scotland produces it’s own banknotes because it can. Also, because they can depict Scottish characters on the notes instead of English/British ones. I must admit I’ve never had a problem using Scottish notes in England, although I rarely use them anywhere except my local pub. They must know me too well.
Scottish notes aren’t legal tender. Other coins and notes in the UK are worth the amount they say they are - a £10 note is worth ten pounds - but a Scottish note is basically just an IOU.
The only banknotes which are legal tender under Scottish law are ones issued by the Bank of England, and below £5. (Yes, you did read that correctly.)
Hey, you learn something every day. I just thought that all banknotes weren’t legal tender in Scotland; I didn’t realise the old pound notes were (when they were still in circulation).
In general, the further north you get in England, the more likely shops are to accept Scottish notes. In London it can be difficult to spend them.
BTW, it’s not just the Bank of Scotland that issues Scottish banknotes - the Royal Bank of Scotland and the Clydesdale Bank also do so (or did last time I was in Scotland, whic admittedly was 20 years ago). Wit English notes also circulating, it meant there were four different designs of each denomination. Confusing!
Sterling bank notes are produced by banks in Northern Ireland and Scotland. The Banks have to deposit reserve fund with thye Bank of England for so doing. The Bank of England is responsible for ensuring that all paper and coin is backed by sufficient reserves and so the Banks that issue their own currency do so only at the discretion of the Bank of England.
Coins are interchangeable between NI Scotland England and Wales, though some pound coins are technically Scottish, N Irish, Welsh or English because of the symbols in the designs.
Additionally, the Channel Islands and Isle of Man produce their own sterling notes and coins and I believe they have to negotiate with the Bank of England over this. Their money is definitely not usable easily in the mainland or NI.
I remember the Linen Bank
Also I remember that Scottish currency is backed one for one with UK Sterling.
Curiously the Clydesdale Bank is part of the same group as the Yorkshire Bank, and is owned by the Australian NAB
To clarify, their notes are not easily usable, but the coins are no more different than the various UK ones (I’ve also seen a Gibraltar 20p).
To clarify again 
Channel Island and Manx notes and coins are not accepted in the UK as legal tender. Notes are obviously and immediately different and so are always rejected. Coins are the same shape and size but with different designs and are therefore more likely to be accepted, but are still not legal tender. Same for other sterling area notes and coins- ST Helena, Gibraltar etc…
I tried using Scottish currency in England and couldn’t, so when I was in Scotland I asked if they would accept English currency. “Of course. We’ll take anything. We’re Scottish.”
I have never had any problems spending Scottish banknotes in England. Admittedly I’ve only ever had to use them maybe a dozen or so times, but nobody in shops in London batted an eyelid. I’ve also happily accepted Scottish notes in change.
Really, there is unlikely to be any need to change them at a bank.
I work for a national retailer in England, and we take Scottish notes quite happily. When we bank the takings, the bank asks (not insists) that we bundle them separately. I never asked why: I presume that they’re not recirculated. Or do they go back to Scotland?
WAG: if you’re a very large national retailer, your cash deposits are so much that the bank checks your deposit by weighing the money as well as counting it, and Scottish notes don’t weigh the same.
Possible explanation, my WAG is it’s more likely to do with the fact that they will return them to the Scottish bank, rather than recirculate them in England.
BTW, never had a problem spending Scottish money in England as far as i can remember and i frequently work in London.
Also, regards an earlier post, i doubt that anyone in Scotland has ever found the multitude of designs confusing (i say that based purely on the fact that i’ve never ever thought about it and never ever heard anyone even comment on it). And it’s not just four different designs in use, Scottish banks seem to print a new variation to celebrate just about any event imaginable and at any moment in time i’d be surprised if there were any less than 10 to 20 designs commonly in circulation.
London is more accepting of Scottish notes than most of the south of England. Obviously the big shops etc. in the West End will take them, as will Heathrow Airport and the rail termini (particularly those which run trains to Scotland). But small shops in the suburbs can be reluctant to accept them, simply because the shopkeeper will not see them often, and will be unfamiliar with them and wary of possible forgery. And once you get out of London into small towns and villages in the South with no direct transport links to Scotland, the reluctance to take them can be near-total. So, although you’d have no problems spending them in Carlisle, you can have trouble in parts of London, and your experience would be very different in, say, Plymouth.