In message , Basil Jet
writes

So if someone uses a taxi in England and offers nothing but Scottish
money, are they committing an offence,

No. The fare is quoted in sterling and they are offering to pay in
sterling.

--
Paul Terry

In article ,
d wrote:
I doubt anyone could spot a good forgery of a bank of england note without
specialist equipment these days. Certainly not simply by "fondling" it for
2 seconds.

It wouldn't have to be a good forgery of a scottish note. I reckon
you can design your own series of notes from a fictional scottish
bank (say, the Royal Edinburgh Bank) and a fair portion of English
folk wouldn't be able to tell you it's a fake.

And that's exactly why many retailers will be unhappy accepting the
notes.

With BoE notes, it at least has to look like a BoE note!

--
Mike Bristow

In article ,
Basil Jet wrote:
So if someone uses a taxi in England and offers nothing but Scottish
money, are they committing an offence,

No. Provided that there is no intention to make off without paying
(and offering actual folding cash which is rebuffed by the driver
is a pretty good defence!) then there is no crime.

and if so, what is the legal term
to describe the things that can be used to settle the debt to the taxi
driver, namely English notes and British coins?

Anything mutually agreeable can be used to settle the debt at the
roadside.

--
Mike Bristow

On 2010\08\11 17:17, Mike Bristow wrote:
In ,
d wrote:
I doubt anyone could spot a good forgery of a bank of england note without
specialist equipment these days. Certainly not simply by "fondling" it for
2 seconds.

It wouldn't have to be a good forgery of a scottish note. I reckon
you can design your own series of notes from a fictional scottish
bank (say, the Royal Edinburgh Bank) and a fair portion of English
folk wouldn't be able to tell you it's a fake.

And that's exactly why many retailers will be unhappy accepting the
notes.

With BoE notes, it at least has to look like a BoE note!

The BoE notes also have safety features such as foil on the surface,
ultraviolet labelling etc which the Scottish notes don't have, making
Scottish notes easier to counterfeit. There is little point in the BoE
introducing these features if shops were legally required to accept
Scottish notes that don't have them.

On Aug 11, 5:16*pm, Paul Terry wrote:

In message , Basil Jet
writes

So if someone uses a taxi in England and offers nothing but Scottish
money, are they committing an offence,

No. The fare is quoted in sterling and they are offering to pay in
sterling.

I'm not sure what the problem is here - you've quite clearly outlined
the whole legal tender issue after all.

Look, if anyone's got a load of Scottish notes they don't want I will
happily take them off your hands - I'll even come and get them, no
problem!

On Aug 11, 5:19*pm, Mike Bristow wrote:

Basil Jet wrote:

So if someone uses a taxi in England and offers nothing but Scottish
money, are they committing an offence,

No. *Provided that there is no intention to make off without paying
(and offering actual folding cash which is rebuffed by the driver
is a pretty good defence!) then there is no crime.

If this situation ever arose, a copper would just tell the cabbie to
stop being so bloody stupid!


and if so, what is the legal term
to describe the things that can be used to settle the debt to the taxi
driver, namely English notes and British coins?

Anything mutually agreeable can be used to settle the debt at the
roadside.

Indeed - they can even do it in the bushes if they prefer...

On 11/08/2010 14:17, Clive wrote:
In message , d writes
Thats all very well, but try having that discussion with some teenage
checkout girl in a london tesco when she refuses to take some Clydesdale
tenners and see where it gets you.
ICBW but do I remember payphones and some shops taking Euros in Waterloo
station when the Eurostar went there?
They take them all over town, indeed.

On 11/08/2010 14:49, Mike Bristow wrote:
In ,
d wrote:
On Wed, 11 Aug 2010 14:24:13 +0100
wrote:
When I take foreign notes into my bank (Barclay's) for refund in pounds,
they take the precaution of checking them against pictures of currency
in a big book. Could you expect a barmaid in Bristol to do this it she
has never seen a note like it before?

Exactly how many pubs check for the validity of english bank notes?

English bar staff are likely to be reasonably familiar with English
banknotes, seeing as they fondle fairly large quantities of them
every day.

The same is not true of Scottish notes.

What if she were threatened with
the sack for accepting anything she didn't know to be legal?

If the pub didn't provide her with a method of checking them then she could
take them to court for unfair dismissal.

Not if the pub's policy was "no Scottish banknotes please - we're English".

Many London pubs in years past did not accept Northern Irish notes, and
would have a sign stating just that. I guess that this was because of
the bank heist a few years back but, AIUI, many retailers in England are
still reluctant to accept them.

I wonder what would happen if somebody tried to pay for a pint with a
Scottish one-pound note.

wrote in message
news7D8o.87903$pW4.52285@hurricane...

I wonder what would happen if somebody tried to pay for a pint with a
Scottish one-pound note.

The first thing the barman would do is ask for another couple of quid I
expect...

Paul S

In message o7D8o.87903$pW4.52285@hurricane, at 20:47:32 on Wed, 11 Aug
2010, " remarked:

I wonder what would happen if somebody tried to pay for a pint with a
Scottish one-pound note.

The barman would probably say they were about £2 short.
--
Roland Perry