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Northern Ireland funny money in the rest of the UK

imme

Does anyone have any experience of being able to spend Northern Ireland 'funny money' in other parts of the UK.

I have some NI sterling and would like to spend it in England or Scotland.

Thanks.

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Abel Ruiz

When I was in london, Northern Irish sterling works perfectly in the checkout machines in tesco.
Couldn't use it anywhere else

timthumbni

A few years back none of the shops around my way in Norn Iron would accept Bank of England notes. Not for any legal tender issue but the fact that so many of them were counterfeit.

I have had success in England and Scotland with them but it’s not worth the hassle. Just get them swapped for Bank of England.

road_high

Think it mainly lot revolves around the English and their never ending paranoia of all things “foreign”. Which is what they view Scotland and Ireland as

timthumbni

road_high wrote: »

Think it mainly lot revolves around the English and their never ending paranoia of all things “foreign”. Which is what they view Scotland and Ireland as

And so what is the excuse for Scotland and Wales not taking Norn Iron notes then?

Atlantic Dawn

If you are in any of the UK 'sectors', can you legally refuse to accept change in anything other than proper English sterling and not alternative Mickey Mouse money?

Vic_08

Atlantic Dawn wrote: »

If you are in any of the UK 'sectors', can you legally refuse to accept change in anything other than proper English sterling and not alternative Mickey Mouse money?

For a pending transaction yes, you can refuse change in a format you don't like and the vendor can cancel the sale.

If it for an un-refundable purchase (food already eaten, pumped fuel,etc) then it may actually be a situation where the term "legal tender" actually has a meaning.

janfebmar

If retail staff in England are not used to N. Irish or Scottish notes, I can see a higher risk of them being fooled by a counterfeit eg Ulster Bank or B of Ireland or whatever sterling note. Easier for them just to deal with one type of note.

Here I saw a dud 50 euro note once, very convincing it was. Hard to blame someone else for being suspicious about notes they are not familiar with. Especially when they probably cannot differentiate an Irish traveller accent from an Irish accent.

Capt'n Midnight

JohnnyFlash wrote: »

It’s ****ing stupid anyway having all the banks print their own notes.

Only one of the four banks doing that is UK owned.

Bank of Ireland and First Trust are Irish banks. Danske is Danish.

awec

road_high wrote: »

Think it mainly lot revolves around the English and their never ending paranoia of all things “foreign”. Which is what they view Scotland and Ireland as

It's not paranoia, just a lot of English people will have never seen a NI note.

It would be the same here if someone turned up with a blue 50 euro note that looked totally different and they said it was from some French bank.

awec

If you're in NI and you want to ensure you get Bank of England notes then use a Halifax or non-bank ATM.

timthumbni

awec wrote: »

If you're in NI and you want to ensure you get Bank of England notes then use a Halifax or non-bank ATM.

Very few Halifax about now. By non bank do you mean the ones in bars, shops the wee private machines that might charge you 1.50?

awec

timthumbni wrote: »

Very few Halifax about now. By non bank do you mean the ones in bars, shops the wee private machines that might charge you 1.50?

Yea the ones that often cost a few quid, but I am pretty sure they always give you English money.

There are some proper ATMs that aren't run by specific banks too.

[Deleted User]

It seems to be a pretty crap currency alright. I remember some years back some poor man was arrested by AGS in the wilds of Cork (yes, apologies for the tautology) just burning loads of NI notes as he couldn't get rid of them for love nor money...

hardCopy

road_high wrote: »

Their withdrawal dates are ridiculously narrow too...here when Notes and indeed currency changed the old ones remained legal tender for ages. I’ve a load of older English pounds coins left, not sure what I can do with them?
They have a very strange and old fashioned approach to cash and currency

Our dual circulation times are ridiculously long. Any retailer will tell you they stopped getting old €5/10/20 notes within a couple of weeks of the new Euro notes being introduced.

Continuing to accept the old notes means you quickly get to the point where junior retail staff aren't accustomed to handling the old notes and susceptible to accepting forgeries.

Atlantic Dawn

Is there any other first world country on the face of the earth with similar issues?

janfebmar

Deleted User wrote: »

It seems to be a pretty crap currency alright. I remember some years back some poor man was arrested by AGS in the wilds of Cork (yes, apologies for the tautology) just burning loads of NI notes as he couldn't get rid of them for love nor money...

I remember that, in about 2005, Garda Commissioner Noel Conroy told a major North-South police seminar in Dublin that money recovered in Co Cork was part of the proceeds of the Northern Bank robbery in Belfast.

hardCopy

janfebmar wrote: »

If retail staff in England are not used to N. Irish or Scottish notes, I can see a higher risk of them being fooled by a counterfeit eg Ulster Bank or B of Ireland or whatever sterling note. Easier for them just to deal with one type of note.

Here I saw a dud 50 euro note once, very convincing it was. Hard to blame someone else for being suspicious about notes they are not familiar with. Especially when they probably cannot differentiate an Irish traveller accent from an Irish accent.

My experience has been that cashiers reject the BoI notes as Irish Punts and Northern Bank notes as Australian Dollars.

I've been able to exchange them in English airports for BoE notes at no charge.

Spook_ie

[Deleted User] wrote: »

It seems to be a pretty crap currency alright. I remember some years back some poor man was arrested by AGS in the wilds of Cork (yes, apologies for the tautology) just burning loads of NI notes as he couldn't get rid of them for love nor money...

There's a guy offering 75p in the pound

https://www.leftovercurrency.com/exchange/northern-irish-pounds/withdrawn-northern-bank-banknotes/

hardCopy

Atlantic Dawn wrote: »

Is there any other first world country on the face of the earth with similar issues?

Scotland is the same. Different US states have their own issuing reserve banks.

Billy86

I'd never heard of this before, is there a legitimate reason for it or is it just a but if a needless slap in the face for people from the north? Does the same apply to Scottish or Welsh tender, or English in the rest of the UK?

I don't see how it's different to American states deciding not to take notes from Texas or California, or Canadians from Quebec, on the face of it.

timthumbni

Billy86 wrote: »

I'd never heard of this before, is there a legitimate reason for it or is it just a but if a needless slap in the face for people from the north? Does the same apply to Scottish or Welsh tender, or English in the rest of the UK?

I don't see how it's different to American states deciding not to take notes from Texas or California, or Canadians from Quebec, on the face of it.

Do US banknotes have different state markings? I did not realise this if so.

blackwhite

Billy86 wrote: »

I'd never heard of this before, is there a legitimate reason for it or is it just a but if a needless slap in the face for people from the north? Does the same apply to Scottish or Welsh tender, or English in the rest of the UK?

I don't see how it's different to American states deciding not to take notes from Texas or California, or Canadians from Quebec, on the face of it.

There's no legislation in the UK to require businesses accept any type of tender. Legislation around legal tender only covers offers of settlement of a debt.

Legal tender in England is only Bank of England coins and notes (and 1p & 2p coins are only legal tender for debts up to 20p!)

Legal tender in Northern Ireland is Bank of England coins only. There's no notes specified as legal tender at all for NI.

Vic_08

Atlantic Dawn wrote: »

Is there any other first world country on the face of the earth with similar issues?

No, this stupidity is reserved for the British.

Hong Kong has several retail banks issuing notes but there is a fixed colour for each denomination so even though they are different designs it is obvious what value they are.

timthumbni wrote: »

Do US banknotes have different state markings? I did not realise this if so.

US banknotes are issued by the Federal government, the individual states do not issue their own money.

citytillidie

road_high wrote: »

Their withdrawal dates are ridiculously narrow too...here when Notes and indeed currency changed the old ones remained legal tender for ages. I’ve a load of older English pounds coins left, not sure what I can do with them?
They have a very strange and old fashioned approach to cash and currency

It was almost a year between the changes in the £1 coin both ran at the same time before the older ones were with drawn

citytillidie

awec wrote: »

If you're in NI and you want to ensure you get Bank of England notes then use a Halifax or non-bank ATM.

Or Nationwide

blackwhite

Vic_08 wrote: »

No, this stupidity is reserved for the British.

Hong Kong has several retail banks issuing notes but there is a fixed colour for each denomination so even though they are different designs it is obvious what value they are.

US banknotes are issued by the Federal government, the individual states do not issue their own money.

Federal Reserve Notes will identify which Federal Reserve Bank issued the note. The seal printed to the left hand side of the portrait is different for each branch, but that's the only difference between notes issued by the different branches.

Euro bank notes also have an identifier for which country issued the note, but it's only through the leading letter on the serial number.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euro_banknotes#Serial_number

Billy86

blackwhite wrote: »

There's no legislation in the UK to require businesses accept any type of tender. Legislation around legal tender only covers offers of settlement of a debt.

Legal tender in England is only Bank of England coins and notes (and 1p & 2p coins are only legal tender for debts up to 20p!)

Legal tender in Northern Ireland is Bank of England coins only. There's no notes specified as legal tender at all for NI.

Is there any actual reason for this, beyond the typical English mentality of the rest of the UK just being 'along for the ride'? It seems pretty ridiculous to have not been addressed be honest, unless it is there for good reason.

Kermit.de.frog

We use "the mainland" to describe Britain around here OP.

Capt'n Midnight

Billy86 wrote: »

I'd never heard of this before, is there a legitimate reason for it or is it just a but if a needless slap in the face for people from the north? Does the same apply to Scottish or Welsh tender, or English in the rest of the UK?

I don't see how it's different to American states deciding not to take notes from Texas or California, or Canadians from Quebec, on the face of it.

US notes , like Euros all look the same.
The only difference between Euros is the letter on the serial number, Irish Euros start with 'T' while 'J' is reserved for the UK.

The UK has 11 different organisations issuing their own individual designs of £5, £10,£20 and £50. So 44 different notes, not counting the £1 and £100 notes that some regions also use. Yes even the denominations have regional variations.
And when a new series is issued there's two versions of each floating around.

Bank of England
Bank of Scotland
Royal Bank of Scotland
Clydesdale Bank
Northern Bank/Danske Bank
First Trust Bank
Ulster Bank
Bank of Ireland
States of Guernsey
States of Jersey
Isle of Man Government

And then there's the currencies pegged to the pound like the Falkland Islands Pound, Gibraltar Pound and St. Helena Pound which I don't think you can exchange in an English bank.

blackwhite

Billy86 wrote: »

Is there any actual reason for this, beyond the typical English mentality of the rest of the UK just being 'along for the ride'? It seems pretty ridiculous to have not been addressed be honest, unless it is there for good reason.

The BoE is the central bank for the UK, not just England. Hence it’s the only one entitled to issue legal tender.

The “NI sterling” is issued by privately owned banks, nothing to do with the State/Govt - hence it’s not going to be legislated as legal tender