Legal Tender?

I was originally going to thump one of the kids and take a photograph of the resulting bruising to represent todays DDW January Challenge subject, Tender. It was pointed out to me by Mrs W that this is not compatible with our no violence policy and in any case would probably be frowned upon for the purpose of a photograph in most walks of life.

So back to the drawing board … think. Aha! I’ve got it!

This photograph includes some legal tender but do you know what is and isn’t legal tender?

There’s lots of information but essentially being legal tender means that, if offered for payment of goods, currency that constitutes legal tender cannot be refused by a vendor. In relation to coins there are various thresholds, which pretty much top out at £20 so therefore a vendor can refuse to accept more than that amount.

More controversially though are the notes as, although the Bank of England notes are legal tender in unlimited amounts across the country, the bad news for my fellow countrymen (and women of course) north of the border, is that Scottish bank notes are not legal tender; not even in Scotland. They are however legal currency and therefore can be accepted as payment throughout the country. That is why you can’t stand and argue with a shopkeeper in England that they must accept your Scottish bank note as payment, because they needn’t do so.

That said, I will happily walk out of a shop that won’t accept my Scottish bank notes and take my custom to one that will. I don’t shop in one of our local supermarkets for that reason and I had the joy years ago of walking out having had a Scottish £20 note refused after my shopping had been processed through the till. It was a matter of choice on their part, so I exercised my right to choose as well.

So there you go. A blip of some money and a mini article on the subject of legal tender in the UK.

I’m going to have a lie down now. It’s all getting too much.