London Banter - View Single Post - Does London Underground accept Euros anywhere?

Jim[_3_] · August 12th 10, 11:35 PM posted to uk.transport.london

In article , d
says...

On Wed, 11 Aug 2010 14:49:31 +0100
Mike Bristow wrote:
In article ,
d wrote:
On Wed, 11 Aug 2010 14:24:13 +0100
Clive wrote:
When I take foreign notes into my bank (Barclay's) for refund in pounds,
they take the precaution of checking them against pictures of currency
in a big book. Could you expect a barmaid in Bristol to do this it she
has never seen a note like it before?

Exactly how many pubs check for the validity of english bank notes?

English bar staff are likely to be reasonably familiar with English
banknotes, seeing as they fondle fairly large quantities of them
every day.

The same is not true of Scottish notes.

I doubt anyone could spot a good forgery of a bank of england note without
specialist equipment these days. Certainly not simply by "fondling" it for
2 seconds.

B2003

Be they barmaids in Bristol or cashiers in a London Tesco it's all to do
with familiarity. I'm sure Boltar is correct in saying that a good
forgery of a smaller denomination Bank of England note would probably
not be noticed but anyone involved in retail would know a bad one
immediately. Some pubs I use do still check twenty and fifty pound
notes with a device [ultra violet?].

Slightly off-topic, as an office junior in a Thomas Cook office in the
late fifties I once had to take a Scottish £100 note to the local
Midland Bank to change into English money [at a discount of sixpence in
the pound]. I was petrified carrying this huge note in the street.

Of course we got quite a few lesser notes which did become familiar and
several times I helped out Scots at Heathrow when having their notes
refused by Green Line drivers and conductors. To this day ECML staff on
trains to Scotland will occasionally when giving change ask where you
are traveling to.

Even more off-topic, during a period when I was based at the Cook's
office in Queensway we once had a 'working girl', of which there were
quite a few in the area, being bitterly disappointed when it was pointed
out to her that the Scottish note she had accepted from a client was not
genuine. It stated that it was payable at the Bonny Banks of Loch
Lomond.