# What are British pounds?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-british-pounds/497090>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [May 20, 2009, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-british-pounds/497090 "2009-05-20T17:35:43Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![DanBlather](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f4b2a3/32.png) [@DanBlather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DanBlather)\
**Post date:** [May 21, 2009, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-british-pounds/497090/21 "2009-05-21T00:32:34Z")

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> [@Revenant\_Threshold](#):
>
> If I remember correctly, a Scottish banknote is a promissary note, and not legal tender (and in fact sometimes you might have a Scottish note refused down here, though generally they’re accepted). And an English banknote isn’t legal tender in Scotland. I can’t even remember how it works with NI in the system. In practice, it doesn’t really seem to matter that much.

Cool, I get to tell my story. I was in Scotland and needed to change some dollars into pounds. The Scottish banker asked me if it was OK if he gave me pounds notes, because if I went back to England they might not be accepted. I asked if English pound coins are accepted in Scotland. He said “We’re Scottish, we’ll accept anything - even bus tokens”.

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**Author:** ![Omoikane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/c4cdca/32.png) [@Omoikane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omoikane)\
**Post date:** [May 21, 2009, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-british-pounds/497090/22 "2009-05-21T02:37:33Z")

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> [@Chez\_Guevara](#):
>
> From the Bank of England FAQ:
> 
> [Link](http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/banknotes/about/faqs.htm#2).
> 
> More banknote history can be found [here](http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/banknotes/about/history.htm).

So it’s included on the note out of tradition, more or less.

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**Author:** ![Chez\_Guevara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/aeb1de/32.png) [@Chez\_Guevara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chez_Guevara)\
**Post date:** [May 21, 2009, 6:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-british-pounds/497090/23 "2009-05-21T06:03:12Z")

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> [@Omoikane](#):
>
> So it’s included on the note out of tradition, more or less.

Yes, it is.

I guess the promise would still hold if our we ever returned to the gold standard but the chances of this happening are practically zero. For one thing, it would be impossible to increase the money supply to relieve the effects of an economic downturn because available money would be tied to the gold supply.

For what it is worth, I do not believe there is any country that still has its currency linked to gold.

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**Author:** ![citizen69](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f4b2a3/32.png) [@citizen69](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/citizen69)\
**Post date:** [May 26, 2009, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-british-pounds/497090/24 "2009-05-26T19:13:00Z")

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> [@njtt](#):
>
> I have a little pebble that I found in my backyard. I guarantee that there is no other quite like it anywhere in the world. It is the only one. You can have it for $1,000,000,000 (although obviously it is worth a lot more than that).
> 
> :rolleyes:

Nah, i have tens of thousands of those unique little pebbles in my own yard. Now ya see if diamonds & gold nuggets were as plentiful as those pebbles they’d be worthless too.

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**Author:** ![sqweels](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f19dbf/32.png) [@sqweels](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sqweels)\
**Post date:** [May 27, 2009, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-british-pounds/497090/25 "2009-05-27T01:06:49Z")

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I won’t interrupt this thread for a pound.

Alright, 50p.

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