Economic Woman has a tale about Scottish banknotes being more difficult to use in England these days
I have no idea if this is the case or not – I do not think I have seen a Scottish banknote for over 20 years now
And that is the main part of the problem – not “Irrational anti-Scottish prejudice.”
Things are further complicated by the fact that (at least when I did see them regularly) there is no one pattern – the different banks had their own designs. This, rather than counterfeiting, is a problem. How do I know if a piece of paper bearing the name “Bank of Ochtermurty” is the real deal or not?
If English banks were still allowed to issue their own notes, I expect some whose names have been recently in the headlines, & not in a good way, would find that their notes were being accepted less easily too. And who knows, what with the amount of quantitative easing & mushrooming government debt, perhaps the Bank of Englands promises will start to seem a tad unreliable soon too
If I am a small local shopkeeper, I know I am going to have a lot of trouble persuading my customers to accept the note as part of their change. With the nearest bank 20 miles away, that is potentially going to give me a cash flow problem in these hard times
Of course the national chains ought to have procedures for dealing with Scottish money, but will every till operator be trained? Waiting for superior sanction seems no less burdensome than having to wait for approval for one of the young ones to be able to sell me a bottle of wine
But look on the bright side. At least, as far as I know, providers of goods & services in Scotland are still perfectly happy to accept Scottish notes. It is not like some Latin American country in the 1960s where hotels, taxi drivers, bars & restaurants want to be paid in Yankee dollars
