"Peter T. Daniels" wrote in message
...

(In 1992, when my Irish host drove us to Ulster for a day trip -- we
stopped at Downpatrick to see St. Patrick's tomb, and the most
unfortunate restoration of St. Patrick's Cathedral to its Victorian
splendor, as opposed to something approaching its original appearance
-- I rather doubt that they would have welcomed Irish pounds. He was
desperate to get back into Ireland before dark.)

As it happens I also visited Ireland in 1992 and spent time on both sides of
the border. My recollection was that retailers close to the border did tend
to accept both currencies, but after twenty years I could well have
misremembered


In 1965, when silver coins were replaced by clad coins, the old ones
weren't recalled or demonetized or anything; the ones that weren't in
the collectors pool were simply retired as they were deposited in
banks, presumably to eventually be melted down for whatever else
silver was used for.

As mentioned elsewhere in the thread, when the UK went decimal in 1971 the
former one shilling and two shilling coins remained unchanged, apart from
the details of the design, but became 5p and 10p coins. So a lot of coins
with 'one shilling' or 'two shilling' inscriptions remained in circulation
until the new, smaller, 5p and 10p coins were introduced in the early 1990s.
But in later years the oldest shilling or two shilling coins in widespread
circulation were from 1947, because the older coins had a higher silver
content and thus would have significant scrap value


When I was little and we went to Canada for several summer vacations,
merchants on either side of the border would take the other's
currency, at a stated premium/discount that was considerably higher
than the exchange rate. That was, at best, a courtesy. Montreal
probably got flooded with greenbacks during Expo '67 (I was 15, I
didn't get to do much spending), and to this day they probably are
happy to take US currency.

And back in London, it seemed every bank
(branch) had an ATM-like machine outside for currency exchange -- I
put in $100 in $20 bills and it gave me the appropriate amount in
sterling (less a hefty fee). In those days it had to deal with a dozen
or more currencies at least, so including US dollars was no big deal
-- but these days, does it accept anything but euros? Or is there
enough tourist trade from the odd-countries-out that they are so
publicly served?

There's a travel agent near me that advertises currency exchange and still
has rates for 8-10 currencies advertised outside. In practice I tend to
rely on ATMs when I travel these days, so I've no idea how many different
currencies they'd be able to handle over the counter

Martin