Scotsman in a London Pub

[cessna152towser]

Perhaps because I live near the border and am more often in England (have been across the Border to Carlisle four times this month), I have actually had Scots money refused twice in England (once at a heritage railway, rather rudely by a shop assistant but I let it go because he was a volunteer and had been getting abuse from someone else about a cancelled train which wasn't his fault) and the other time politely in Yorkshire when my Scots £20 note was refused because the sales assistant didn't know how to check it as genuine with his UV pen but said he would accept smaller denominations.
Not usually a problem and there's even a soft drinks machine at Newcastle Airport which is programmed to accept Scottish banknotes.
On summer weekends I'm often across the border helping out at the Solway Aviation Museum at Carlisle Airport. As visitors often fly in from far and wide we accept ALL Sterling, English, Scottish, Northern Irish, Isle of Man, Jersey, Guernsey, Gibraltar etc coins and banknotes.

in Scotland there are something of the order of 8 different banks that do so. So, the problem is, how is the average English shopkeeper (or bartender) to know whether some of those are even real banks? Trust me, most don't know. They just cross their fingers and pray that it is real money.

There are only three Scottish banks which issue notes. Both the Bank of Scotland and the Royal Bank of Scotland are affiliated to English banks. There is a smaller bank, the Clydesdale which, outside of Scotland, only has a few branches in the north of England, but even Clydesdale notes are usually accepted.