On Dec 28, 7:03*pm, "
wrote:
On 28/12/2011 23:39, Jim wrote:





In , hounslow3
@yahoo.co.uk says...

On 28/12/2011 19:07, Phil Kane wrote:
On Wed, 28 Dec 2011 12:03:35 +0000, "
* wrote:

They haven't used pre-decimal coins here since the early '70s.

In the 10 days that I spent in London in 1967 I had almost figured out
the British monetary system including the localisms, now mostly
forgotten. *Do the kids growing up there recognize that at all?
--

A system that hasn't been in use in over 40 years? No.

Scottish banknotes have been at par for well over 40 years [originally
they were discounted at sixpence in the pound] but even now many smaller
shops don't accept them, probably because of unfamiliarity.

That comes as no surprise where certain establishments are involved.

In the past I have offered to exchange them when Green Line drivers on
Heathrow were refusing them from passengers.

On a trip earlier this year on the East Coast Main Line I was asked by a
trolley attendant if I would accept some change in Scottish notes.

I have received change in Northern Irish notes and in Scottish notes
here in London, though it is very rare for that to happen on a regular
basis. If I sometimes see a Scottish note in a till, then I will ask for
it as part of my change.-

In 1992 I bought some pound notes in Northern Ireland, because I would
be staying a few days in London after my speaking engagement in
Dublin. I was surprised to read on them that they were specifically
Northern Ireland currency, even though the were issued by the Bank of
England and legal tender throughout the United Kingdom (they said.)
The clerk ("shop assistant") in the British Museum bookstore had to
call the manager before she would believe it was real money. I managed
to find a bank branch and exchange them for "real money" later that
day, so that I could spend far too much at Blackwell's in Oxford on
Saturday. (I went up to Cambridge on Sunday; I think the stores
("shops") were closed, except for a touristy establishment where the
clerk thought it odd that I wanted to buy a postcard with the arms of
all the colleges, like the one I had gotten in ("at"?) Oxford. Perhaps
the Cambridge colleges don't get along as well as the Oxford colleges?

(I also liked the fusty old Ashmolean better than the newly modernized
Fitzwilliam, but the Ashmolean has now been renovated as well so it
probably resembles every other museum in the world.)

Organ scholars practicing ("practising") in every Oxford college
chapel, vs. Evensong at King's College ... hmm ... (I missed the
"opening hours" of the Bodleian on Saturday, because I took a bus that
got caught in traffic, so on Sunday I took the train to Cambridge --
but that meant I had to sit in the narthex of St. John's College
Chapel for _their_ evensong because I'd have to leave in the middle to
catch the last(?) train down(?) to London.

Took the Underground from and to Heathrow, and also for a short trip
once within London. Not much memorable about it.