Scotland pounds

Why not just withdraw small amount from an ATM when you get there?

Scottish notes are not legal tender in England...

They are not legal tender in Scotland either.

Whoops! Accidentally deleted my post.

They are valid UK currency. And after we insisted, the businesses did accept them.

When we visited Scotland and England in 2018, we had leftover "Scottish" pounds. Banks would not exchange them for "English" pounds for us since we did not have an account with them. We had trouble spending them because businesses did not want to accept them. We had to insist that they were valid in England. I realize that this is the opposite of what you would like to do, but I would say do not count on it.

Specifically, it was the three banks that we stopped at to try to exchange them that told us to just spend them. They said businesses had to accept them.

I don't mean to cause any controversy here. My point is to let the OP know that banks will probably not exchange them for you because you don't have an account with them. That was our experience.

You cannot insist anywhere in England to accept Scottish notes - no one is legally required to accept them. You are likely to find them relatively easy to use in northern England. The further south you go the harder it will be but anyone is perfectly entitled to refuse them - you can’t insist.

Understanding Legal Currency vs Legal Tender
One of the most common points of confusion is the difference between "legal currency" and "legal tender." It’s a subtle distinction, but it’s key to understanding how Scottish money works across the UK.
Think of it like this: legal currency is any money officially recognised by the government, which includes all Scottish and Bank of England notes. Legal tender, on the other hand, is a much narrower legal term for money that must be accepted to settle a debt in court.
This little technicality is why you’ll sometimes hear that Scottish notes aren't "legal tender" anywhere, not even in Scotland itself. But for day-to-day shopping, what really matters is simply whether a shop accepts the cash, not its legal tender status.
https://www.webuyallcurrency.com/what-is-the-currency-of-scotland/

I realize this not an official source, but provides some insight into the 'problem'.

Never would have thought that the "United Kingdom" countries would have a theoretically identical value currency, but is not interchangeable. Live and learn..

You cannot insist anywhere in England to accept Scottish notes

I've had pretty good luck in the past not insisting as such, but telling people it's fine to accept Scottish notes in London when I've had an initial refusal. It depends how you go about it. I've had very little cause to use cash at all in the last decade so it's a bit of a moot point. John is right though. Nobody is obliged to take your money if they don't want to.

In answer to the OP's question, if you need cash in Scotland just take it from an ATM as CJean says. Whatever that spits out will be good, English or Scottish notes.

A small point, but the distinction isn't between "British" and "Scottish" notes (notes are what we call bills in British English). Scottish notes are also British.

Here's a link to the section of the Wikipedia page on Pound Sterling which goes some way to explaining.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pound_sterling#Legal_tender_and_national_issues

This was said in a post about British vs Scottish pounds several months ago:

" -In Scotland, some cash machines will give you Scottish notes and some will give you British notes. If the bank is based in Scotland (Bank of Scotland, Royal Bank of Scotland, Clydesdale) you will get not only Scottish notes but notes particular to one of those three banks- each bank prints its own notes. If you go to a cash machine from a bank based elsewhere in the UK or a global brand, like HSBC, you'll get British notes."

So if that's true, you just need to find an ATM for one of those banks. Or if you're a collector (I'm guessing that's why you want them), hit all three and get the complete set! The ATM fees might be a deterrent, though...

Getting back to your original question....you don't need to exchange British pounds for Scottish pounds. You can use British pounds in Scotland since Scotland is in Britain. In Scotland, they are interchangable.

I spend a lot of time in Scotland--I'm there now--and I have never had any business refuse British pounds.

If for some reason you just want Scottish pounds as a souvenir, just ask at your hotel. They'll do it.

I do just the opposite when I leave Scotland. If I have any Scottish pounds, I ask them to exchange them for British pounds when I leave. Less hassle outside of Scotland.

Just to reiterate, British does not equal English. I'm not making any political point. The differences we're talking about here are notes issued by Scottish banks versus notes issued by The Bank of England. Both are British.

It does get a bit confusing about what to call the notes issued by the Bank of England. It's true they are technically English but I think calling them "English notes" might lead people to think you can't use them in the other three constituent countries. For clarification, both Scotland and Northern Ireland issue their own notes- Scotland across three different banks and NI across another three. Wales does not issue any notes. England issues one type of note that you can use anywhere in the UK. So at any given time, across the whole of the UK, there are seven different sets of notes in circulation! Altho these days you're unlikely to see any as we are mostly cashless.

It sounds like you think you need Scottish pounds. You don’t! You can spend Bank of England notes with no problem in Scotland. There is no need to change them.

Altho these days you're unlikely to see any as we are mostly cashless.

In the real world, outside of certain cliques who want to be cashless, there is a lot of cash being used. I regularly see people paying 3 figure grocery bills in the supermarket with a wad of notes.
And in my town a brand new cafe in my town opened 2 weeks ago- for the time being at least they are cash only. Part of that seems to be local wi-fi problems for the till, but part of it is to keep costs down, and other factors.

And you know what, they are over-whelmed with trade, it's a rip roaring success.

If you don't want to pay in cash you know what, they don't need you.

In fact one person who got lippy and demanding about the policy has locally been named and shamed on Facebook, and banned from the cafe for abusing staff.

In the real world, outside of certain cliques who want to be cashless,
there is a lot of cash being used

I was curious to see what the figures actually are.
According to the Times less than 10% of payments are now in cash so I don’t think it can be described as a ‘clique’. A further google found 14% of shops have gone cashless in the last year.

Obviously that means the majority of shops are still taking cash. Any shop that decides to be all cash or all cashless seems to wanting to turn away business which does seem very shortsighted.

The majority of people in the UK are happy to continue to use a range of methods of payment depending on the situation.

Thanks everyone for the detailed response. Someone understood EXACTLY - I just would like some Scotish pounds as a keepsake and wondered since I will come to Scotland with "British notes" if I could go to a bank and exchange a few. Someone (thank you) said to simply ask the hotel. I will. Happy Travels. Colleen

I don't understand the resistance to calling English notes English notes. It seems everyone is determined to be wrong though. Is it based around some misplaced ideas about Scottish nationalism? I've never come across anyone calling English notes British outside of this forum.

I think there has been some confusion over the question - the OP would like to have some Scottish pounds, it's nothing to do with spending them in England.

So my answer is, if you are travelling to Scotland and you have some "Bank of England" notes left from a previous trip (or a friend/neighbour's previous trip!) bring them, they are OK in Scotland and when you spend them you might get your change in Scottish notes. If not, don't put yourself out buying any at home just make sure you have credit/debit card which has been OK'd for foreign use (if it needs to be) and withdraw cash from an ATM. Read the ATM notices carefully, those that say FREE mean they don't levy a fee, but your card issuer might. If they don't say free they may levy a fee - and that type can usually be avoided.

Because most people use the cards when abroad UK banks are now mostly out of foreign currency exchanging, some won't even do it for their account holders.

And if you are collecting notes as a hobby, bear in mind that Bank of Scotland, Royal Bank of Scotland, and Clydesdale Bank are all authorised to produce notes, so your hunt will be for three of each value!!!

The Isle of Man, Jersey and Guernsey also issue their own banknotes- if you want to collect the currencies of the United Kingdom.

thanks so much for the information. I will check as I travel.