[gerjomarty]

As with Northern Irish bank notes, which have a similar place in English society to the Scottish ones. The pub I went to got very confused when I presented a £10 note issued by the Bank of Ireland, which I guess would be confusing if you had no knowledge of it.

I think the phrase "legal tender" has a lot to answer for here. It's a really well known phrase, and you'll hear shop owners say they can't accept these notes because they're not "legal tender", but the actual definition of it is only applicable when settling debt in specific circumstances.

[Tsiklon]

I think the Northern Irish notes have a worse and more obscure place in England than the Scottish ones, up until last year there were 4 different issuing banks in Northern Ireland: Bank of Ireland, Danske Bank, Ulster Bank and First Trust Bank [who now no longer issue].

It's quite entertaining to handover a Danish-Irish-UK pound sterling note in the UK, like somehow the viking era never ended.

[gerjomarty]

Not to mention the infamous Northern bank, which Danske Bank replaced. I don't think I've ever seen a note replacement scheme happen as quickly as the one that replaced all of the green Northern bank notes for purple ones after the Northern bank robbery, which I believe is still the largest amount of money stolen from a bank at once in UK history, right?

[Tsiklon]

Indeed it was. Albeit it was a moot robbery as you say, given that every note taken was known to the bank, and the whole class was obsoleted within weeks

[projektfu]

The BoI notes also felt cheaper to me than the English ones, so maybe they look counterfeit to the untrained eye. Maybe it's good as they function as a sort of local scrip and serve there purpose of recirculating money locally, etc., but they will be converted on the other side of the sea.

[ghaff]

A few years back, I had some older English (pre-plastic?) notes. I had to take them to a bank to exchange for "proper" notes because stores wouldn't accept them.

[notahacker]

tbf, the actual definition of "legal tender" gives shops even more right to reject banknotes of a design they're unfamiliar with, which is why they also often refuse to accept £50 notes which are legal tender...