Spend all your Scottish Pounds on beer, whisky, haggis, and IrnBru before crossing the border. Problem solved.

Or, as it's known locally, 'a meal deal'.

As the Captain said above, they're not legal tender - not even in Scotland. Nor are Bank of England notes in Scotland. But they're are legal currency everywhere in the UK, and are authorised by an Act of Parliament.
There's some general information at http://www.scotbanks.org.uk/legal_position.php and the legal position at http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/bankn...rnireland.aspx

In practice, you won't have trouble spending Scottish notes in England, other than the relatively rare £1 notes.

I quite like using them to pay for rounds of drinks, because a barman is unlikely to take back a few pints once they've been poured - but it's been quite some time since anyone's actually tried to refuse to take one. Though I did once have to try to explain the person and the map on an old Clydesdale Bank £10 at the work canteen at 3am, when neither of us was really awake enough to comprehend it why there was a map of part of Nigeria on something Scottish.

Also, once someone's pointed out to you that the Exchange Building (click on the banknote on the second row on this page to see it) looks like a doner kebab, you really can't unsee it.

Spotted this in Toronto a few years ago:
http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2129/2...9e59c9f2c0.jpg

It's a bit hard to make out, but Scotland had a better rate listed than England!

No, in that case you do mean 'legal tender'.
Accepting them is perfectly 'legal'. I.e. it is not 'illegal' in any way.

As per teflons post above.
[N.b. I'd be making a complaint about the flag used for England in addition to the rate differential.]

:D:D:D

They are difficult to spend in Scotland where you might think they would be used to a variety of notes. I remember the story a professor at the University of Ulster told me - he was in Glasgow and offered to pay a bill with a £10 Bank of Ireland note, but they wouldn't accept it. He found a Bank of England note in his wallet. In turn he refused a £5 Bank of Scotland note as part of his change explaining that, 'You wouldn't take one of mine so why should I take one of yours?'

As someone originally from Northern Ireland but who works in Scotland and England, I am fairly militant about this. I normally just threaten to walk out of the said shop/establishment if they refuse accept payment with a N Ireland (or less frequently, Scottish) banknote, in 7.5 years of doing this I've only actually had to leave once, in all the other circumstances the cashier has relented.

If you're less brave than I am, try the Self Service checkouts in any major supermarket which generally accept all Sterling banknotes without question. Alternatively, the nearest post office will exchange Scottish/NI banknotes.

I did once pay with a Scottish note in a London Post Office. The cashier turned to his colleague, held up the note, and asked "what is this - is it Welsh?" :)

It is the case that Northern Ireland notes are more likely to be seen suspiciously, especially those from First Trust who have only been doing them for a few years and many have never heard of them.

I believe the Royal Bank in Scotland still does a £1 paper note, which is particularly difficult to get rid of in England where this value has for long only been a coin.

There are also Isle of Man and Channel Island notes, which are even more of a challenge in smaller shops.

In Northern Ireland there was an extremely large robbery of Northern Bank notes some years ago, big enough to cause the bank to withdraw rapidly all in circulation and issue a new and different design, and as in the UK they were rare anyway those were particularly difficult to get rid of, as people were not familiar with what was old (which were all officially cancelled) and what was new.

RBS withdrew the £1 note a while back - they seemed to ship most of them to Orkney and Shetland when they were still in circulation.

I haven't seen a £1 note in circulation up here for 3-4 years - and the last time was on the northern isles.

Interestingly, I went to a Nat West in Skipton (I think it was Skipton - somewhere nearby anyway). I asked for a Scottish note and the manager refused to give any to me. He said that no bank in England was permitted to give its customers Scottish notes. Any that they got, they had to return to the issuing bank. Who knew?

I have once received by mistake a few Scottish notes in an ATM withdrawal from the Nationwide in England.

One wonders what they will make of the rebranding of Northern Bank as Danske Bank!

I suppose makes sense, because England does have legal tender and they are not legal tender - only honoured promissary notes.

This does seem an extraordinary rebranding of a long-established and well-known business name for a meaningless and unknown new one. Is it connected with the notoriety from the large robbery some years ago, universally known as "the Northern Bank Robbery" ?