SCOTLAND MONEY
Scotland is part of the United Kingdom and as such uses the UK currency which is known as Pound Sterling.
Under this system 100 pence is equal to one pound making working with the UK currency very easy. The symbol used for pounds is:
£ or is sometimes shown as
GBP (Great Britain Pounds) and the symbol used for pence is:
p
So two pound forty pence would be written:
£2.40 or
GBP 2.40
Twenty pence would be written
20p.
Currently the currency in use is as follows:
Coins: 1 pence, 2 pence, 5 pence, 10 pence, 50 pence, one pound, 2 pounds. The 1 and 2 pence piece are bronze, the 5, 10, 20 and 50 pence pieces are silver and the 1 and 2 pound coins are gold. All coins carry the Queens head on the front.
From time to time there will be special coins struck to celebrate an important anniversary or event.
Notes: bank notes come in denominations of £5.00, £10.00, £20.00 and £50.00.
Bank of England bank notes are distributed throughout the UK. In Scotland the Bank of Scotland, Clydesdale Bank and Royal Bank of Scotland all issue their own notes. In addition (at time of writing) the Royal Bank is the only bank in the UK still to have £1.00 notes in circulation.These are all legal tender throughout the UK. However many people outside of Northern Ireland and Scotland are not familiar with these local notes and are sometimes refused as acceptable payment in England. However this is wrong, they are totally acceptable and if there''s any problem using them you can always change them at any bank for the English notes.
These colourful notes will, hopefully, add a different dimension to your visit to Scotland and collecting some notes to take back as a souvenir is a popular activity with visitors. The UK is does not use the same currency as much of Europe contrary to the belief of many first time visitors. While many countries of the European union use the Euro which came into being on January 1st 1999 the UK has so far decided to continue with its own currency.
Scotland's Clans and Tartans