BS: Beware of Scottish banknotes

Subject: BS: Beware of Scottish banknotes
From: Rain Dog
Date: 13 Dec 21 - 06:25 PM

Funny money

"NatWest has been fined more than £264m for anti-money-laundering failures that involved black bin liners stuffed full of cash being deposited, and sums so large that one branch’s two floor-to-ceiling safes proved “inadequate” for storing it all.

The Bradford jeweller Fowler Oldfield’s predicted annual turnover was £15m when first taken on as a client, but it ended up depositing £365m with the bank over a five-year period, including £264m in cash.

At the time, the National Crime Agency requested information about the customer and said that as this involved a lot of Scottish banknotes being deposited, “this money may have been related to the trade in controlled drugs”, court documents state. Law enforcement officers believed that the discovery of large amounts of Scottish banknotes in England was an indicator of criminal activity."

And

"Concerns were raised at a cash centre over the presence of Scottish notes, which the court heard smelled “musty”, as if they had been “stored under the floorboards”."

Well it made me smile.

Subject: RE: BS: Beware of Scottish banknotes
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 13 Dec 21 - 07:07 PM

Don't get me started on my misfortunes with €10 notes. I was standing on the end of the little pier in Amalfi when I reached into my pocket for a tissue to blow my nose. A€10 note, accidentally liberated from that pocket, fluttered gracefully, this way and that as they do when there's no breeze, into the Med many feet below. Lost and gone forever. That was nearly four gelati's worth, vanished into the briny. I leaned hard on a nearby capstan and wept.

On another occasion I reached into my pocket to pay for a couple of cappuccinos at Catania airport. I was bit too energetic about it and pulled out a €10 note - in two neatly-torn halves. I still have them. I don't know what to do. Italian banks are a bit scary...

Subject: RE: BS: Beware of Scottish banknotes
From: Thompson
Date: 14 Dec 21 - 03:36 AM

Wouldn't you think if it was musty drug money they'd have laundered it?
Steve, if the number is on the torn note you can bring it to a bank and swap it.

Subject: RE: BS: Beware of Scottish banknotes
From: Mr Red
Date: 15 Dec 21 - 04:41 AM

noteworthy?

Subject: RE: BS: Beware of Scottish banknotes
From: leeneia
Date: 15 Dec 21 - 01:21 PM

There's nothing funny about the illegal drug trade. This past summer a relative of mine died because he used a drug to which fentanyl had been added.

Subject: RE: BS: Beware of Scottish banknotes
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 15 Dec 21 - 01:55 PM

The new polymer notes shouldn't smell musty, but there are already people out their trying to forge them!
"Here in Scotland" pretty well all the ATMs will dispense Scottish notes, and as we have 3 different banks (Clydesdale, Royal Bank of Scotland and Bank of Scotland) all producing different designs of note, I suppose it's no wonder some English retailers get confused and refuse them. We nearly had to go hungry once, after driving all the way from Edinburgh to Sidmouth - 450 miles - then have the chippie refuse our Scottish £10 note (back when you could get 2 fish suppers for under £10). All wrapped up and ready to take away, when they said "We can't accept THAT". Fortunately for our rumbling tums, my husband found one English £10 note in the car!
Some folk have made a big song and dance about it, protesting that Scottish notes are "legal tender": in fact they are not, although they are "legal currency" - subtle difference - look it up! But it's at the retailer's discretion whether to accept or not. So now we spend all out Scottish £££s before crossing the Border, then pick up some English notes at the first free cash machine on the other side (those in motorway services are usually NOT free!)

Subject: RE: BS: Beware of Scottish banknotes
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 15 Dec 21 - 02:22 PM

I did & am enlightened! The difference between legal tender and legal currency

Subject: RE: BS: Beware of Scottish banknotes
From: Allan Conn
Date: 15 Dec 21 - 03:09 PM

Bank of England notes are not legal tender in Scotland either but no-one would refuse them. Legal tender is really nothing to do with normal day to day trading anyway. There are only a limited amount of bank notes in circulation in the UK so shouldn't be rocket science for retailers. Saying that I am not sure we are that much better in Scotland. I have seen Ulster Bank notes being refused in Oban.

Subject: RE: BS: Beware of Scottish banknotes
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 16 Dec 21 - 10:29 AM

Allan Conn: I have seen Ulster Bank notes being refused in Oban.

That's understandable, but probably a throwback. At one time English banknotes were at parity with Irish banknotes, so treated as equivalent. In 1979 changes in Ireland (republic of) meant that parity was lost, and Southern Irish banknotes had to be treated (in UK) as foreign currency with an exchange rate.
Working in the bank at that time meant identifying whether an 'Irish' banknote presented was Norther Irish (drawn on a bank in Belfast) and exchangeable 1 for 1 with UK currency, or Republic of Ireland (drawn in Dublin) cashable only by using the relevant exchange rate. This problem continued until 1999 when the Republic adopted the Euro

There was an earlier time, in the 70s, when most UK banks would not accept any Republic of Ireland banknotes although they were at parity because repeated bank strikes in the Republic meant that the UK banks could not get the value for them.

Subject: RE: BS: Beware of Scottish banknotes
From: Allan Conn
Date: 16 Dec 21 - 11:29 AM

Aye this was only several years ago. In a supermarket in Oban. Couple of young guys in front of us. The Ulster Bank notes are sterling UK notes just as Scottish ones are. The young guy on checkout just obviously didn't recognise them. Called the line manager who eventually came and confirmed they were ok. All very embarrassing for both the young tourists and the youngster on the checkout though. As I say there aren't that many UK banks that issue their own notes. It wouldn't be rocket science for big employers to work it into their basic training of staff. Different fair enough for small shops etc..

Subject: RE: BS: Beware of Scottish banknotes
From: Malcolm Storey
Date: 16 Dec 21 - 05:11 PM

We invited Barbara Dymock as one of our guests at Drax a year or two back and she and Tom found their accommodation OK.
While Tom was sorting things out Barbar went to the local shop and was pleased to find they stocked the staple Scot's brew Iron Brew or IrnBru.
Only to find the shopkeeper would not accept Scottish notes - it's a funny old world!!

Subject: RE: BS: Beware of Scottish banknotes
From: meself
Date: 16 Dec 21 - 08:06 PM

Oh, come on - someone's got to have a cheap joke about Scotsmen and Scottish banknotes ... no?

Subject: RE: BS: Beware of Scottish banknotes
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 17 Dec 21 - 08:48 AM

Meself:
No, but with the latest version of the £1- coin we can recycle an old one about the three-penny bit.

"Why have threepenny bits (pound coins) got twelve sides?"
"So you can use a spanner to get them out of a Scotsman's hand"

Is that the sort of thing you were looking for?

Subject: RE: BS: Beware of Scottish banknotes
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 17 Dec 21 - 10:23 AM

Being a Lancashire lad meself, I'd rewrite that one to replace Scotsman with Yorkshireman...

Subject: RE: BS: Beware of Scottish banknotes
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 17 Dec 21 - 11:20 AM

Ah: Yorkshire.

For Advent I've been posting a carol a day on Facebook. (Fromm the BBC Schools Radio booklets)
Yesterday's was A Yorkshire Carol (Here we come a-wassailing)

Subject: RE: BS: Beware of Scottish banknotes
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 17 Dec 21 - 02:17 PM

For meself, we "Here in Scotland" had them first in the then un-united kingdoms of what later became the UK. First sterling bank notes issued by Bank of Scotland in 1696. (But the Chinese had some form of bank notes 900 years earlier!)

Subject: RE: BS: Beware of Scottish banknotes
From: Malcolm Storey
Date: 17 Dec 21 - 06:27 PM

When Tich Frier moved from Scotland down to Yorkshire he said he very soon realised that having been told for years that Scots were careful
with money - they were rank amateurs compared to Yorkshire people!
I can't argue with that!

Subject: RE: BS: Beware of Scottish banknotes
From: Allan Conn
Date: 18 Dec 21 - 04:52 AM

I'm Scottish and had never seen anything like my wife's family from Norfolk. Don't get me wrong they'd never see you in need - but when it comes to spending on themselves!!! I got fed up when on holidays they'd tread round the streets of a town to check the menu prices of every pub and hotel before eventually deciding where to eat. Then walking an age back to the first because it was £1.30 or so cheaper....

Subject: RE: BS: Beware of Scottish banknotes
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 20 Dec 21 - 07:51 PM

Going back to when we still had £1 banknotes in Scotland but not in England, my husband went into a shop in Devon and went to buy something costing only 80 pence. The cashier proceeded to hand him back £4.20p in change. My husband, being a honest soul, pointed out that he had only given over a £1 note: to which the cashier rewarded him for his honesty by saying “Oh, we can’t accept THOSE”. Husband left the shop with his £1 note but without his planned purchase! Michty me!

Subject: RE: BS: Beware of Scottish banknotes
From: Manitas_at_home
Date: 21 Dec 21 - 01:13 AM

So all he had to do was hand back £4? And refuse to take the Scottish note back?

Subject: RE: BS: Beware of Scottish banknotes
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 21 Dec 21 - 05:54 PM

He handed back the £4.20. and took back his Scottish £1 note as he'd be able to use it, nae doot, back in guid auld "North Britain".