Pound sterling

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Nov 29, 2007 | 3:45 am
  #1  
Just returned from Gibraltar and brought back Government of Gibraltar Ł5 and Ł10 notes. Made me think though how many different authorities issue notes in pound sterling currency? Before this trip I had only seen those issued by the Bank of England and the Scottish banks.

One further thought. Are dollars (those in currency union with the US dollar) issued by anyone other than the US federal reserve?

Come to think of it is the Pound sterling the only currency that comes in different forms?
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Nov 29, 2007 | 3:50 am
  #2  
Off the top of my head:

Bank of England
Bank of Scotland
Royal Bank of Scotland
Clydesdale Bank
Northern Bank
Ulster Bank
First Trust Bank
Bank of Ireland
Gibraltar
Jersey
Guernsey
Isle of Man

And the Falklands?

I know that Deutschmarks used to be printed in Bosnia as Convertible Marks (which are now pegged to the Euro), but that's a slightly different situation. You have the various African CFA Francs pegged to the Euro too, these days, but then you could argue that currencies pegged to the US Dollar are reprinting those, too...

ISTR that there were specific versions of the Danish Kroner printed in Greenland and the Faroes, and of Dutch Guilders (now Euro as well) in the Netherlands Antilles, but I don't know the current status.
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Nov 29, 2007 | 3:53 am
  #3  
Quote: Just returned from Gibraltar and brought back Government of Gibraltar £5 and £10 notes. Made me think though how many different authorities issue notes in pound sterling currency? Before this trip I had only seen those issued by the Bank of England and the Scottish banks.

One further thought. Are dollars (those in currency union with the US dollar) issued by anyone other than the US federal reserve?

Come to think of it is the Pound sterling the only currency that comes in different forms?
In HK, the HK Dollar bank notes were printed by 3 banks: HSBC, Standard Chartered, and Bank of China.
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Nov 29, 2007 | 4:36 am
  #4  
The Republic of Ireland's 'punt' used to be in currency union with the pound sterling. But their currency was floated well before they switched to the Euro.
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Nov 29, 2007 | 6:55 am
  #5  
The FED (and US mint for coins) is the only agency that produces legal tender US dollar notes.

Plenty of countries have their currencies pegged to the dollar-Belize, Bahamas, ECB, etc etc and some others actually use the US dollar-Ecuador, Panama, El Salvador, Micronesia.

Ciao,
FH
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Nov 29, 2007 | 7:14 am
  #6  
Quote: Come to think of it is the Pound sterling the only currency that comes in different forms?
Euro cent coins come in different forms to indicate the country of production.
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Nov 29, 2007 | 7:33 am
  #7  
An interesting related thread over here in the UK forum.
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Nov 29, 2007 | 12:40 pm
  #8  
Quote: Euro cent coins come in different forms to indicate the country of production.
The first character in the serial number of EUR bills (a letter) indicates the country that printed it. There's even a letter reserved for the UK
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Nov 29, 2007 | 12:45 pm
  #9  
Quote: I know that Deutschmarks used to be printed in Bosnia as Convertible Marks
But the Bosnian Convertible Marks were only legal tender there; they held no value in Germany AFAIK.

Quote: some others actually use the US dollar-Ecuador, Panama, El Salvador, Micronesia.
Ecuador & Panama only use the bills though, they mint their own coins (also AFAIK).
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Nov 29, 2007 | 1:00 pm
  #10  
Note that only Bank of England notes are of any value outside the country of issue.
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Nov 29, 2007 | 1:07 pm
  #11  
Quote: Note that only Bank of England notes are of any value outside the country of issue.
No banknote - not even Scottish ones - are legal tender in Scotland
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Nov 29, 2007 | 1:17 pm
  #12  
Quote: Note that only Bank of England notes are of any value outside the country of issue.
That's generally, but not always the case. It's more to do with lack of understanding of the complex system of note production in the UK, which means its just not recognised that these are £ sterling (in the same way that England tends to be substituted inappropriately for the UK or Great Britain), but there are some places which, used to Scots visiting, will take Scottish bank notes for forex.
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Nov 29, 2007 | 1:24 pm
  #13  
Quote:
Ecuador & Panama only use the bills though, they mint their own coins (also AFAIK).

But it is on par with the US Dollar one to one.

And Ecuador uses the "golden" Dollar Sac coins more than bills. Over 500,000,000$US in Dollar coins were sent to Ecuador. The lower coins are minted there.

Ciao,
FH
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Nov 29, 2007 | 1:25 pm
  #14  
Quote: Dutch Guilders (now Euro as well) in the Netherlands Antilles, but I don't know the current status.
The Netherlands Antilles Gulden was (and is) a different currency than the Dutch Gulden. The NA Gulden is pegged to the US dollar.
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Nov 30, 2007 | 3:18 am
  #15  
Quote: Note that only Bank of England notes are of any value outside the country of issue.
Dubai will take Scottish notes but from what I've read on TA you get a worse exchange rate.
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