Quoting papercutheart from 11:33, 17th May 2007
Scottish noted are Promisory notes - which if you actually check on the notes it says "Promise to pay the bearer on demand Xamount".
That's irrelevant: English notes say exactly the same thing. You could argue that the difference is that the Bank of England is the central bank of the country rather than a retail bank, but that is also irrelevant. So is the fact that Scottish notes technically aren't 'legal tender': as has been explained, that is only a technical point relating to the fact that a note that is legal tender cannot legally be refused in payment of a debt, whereas Scottish notes, not being 'legal tender', legally could be. This doesn't give a shopkeeper any additional right to refuse to accept them: a shopkeeper can refuse to serve a customer on almost any basis he likes, and in the case of refusals to accept Scottish notes, this is merely the exercise of that right. He could just as legally refuse to accept English £50 notes, which is also common enough, or more trivially he could refuse, say, a commemorative coin on the basis that he didn't like the picture.
The real issue, as has also been pointed out, is that certain staff don't know a real Scottish note from a fake one. This is a larger problem in multiples, who decline to provide adequate training and then form company policies that forbid their own staff from exercising common sense; this is particularly galling in the case of Scottish companies like Stagecoach. A small, independent retailer or publican is far more likely to accept the notes if they're being proffered by someone who doesn't look shifty. When I come back from Scotland, if I happen to have any Scottish notes I do the sensible thing and use them to pay for my lunch in the office cantine.
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Psalm 91:7
