The English-to-American Dictionary

Blurb - Currency

One of the things that unites The United Kingdom is our common currency. We all use The Pound, which in turn is divided into one hundred "pennies", or "pence". Our coins come in the denominations of one and two pence (copper-coloured), five, ten, twenty and fifty pence (silver), one pound (gold) and most recently two pounds, which is a silver coin inset into a larger gold disc. All of these have the Queen's Head on one side, and some sort of other design on the other. Not her real head, just a picture of it. The design on the other side could be one of quite a few things - different ones are often used to symbolise seminal events or as a nod towards each of the various countries in the UK. These nods are usually in the form of a lion for England, a leek for Wales, a thistle for Scotland and nothing for Northern Ireland, presumably because they haven't been behaving themselves properly. Our notes come in denominations of five, ten, twenty and fifty.

While Scotland and Northern Ireland aren't allowed to have their own currency, some of their regional banks are allowed to print their own banknotes. There is a great deal of confusion about whether these notes are "legal tender" or not; most of this centres around a popular misconception of what "legal tender" actually is. To cut a long story short, retailers in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland should treat pound notes from any issuing bank within the United Kingdom as being equal. Unfortunately you're unlikely to have much of a leg to stand on whilst waving your Northern Irish ten pound note at the chap behind the counter in a Welsh McDonalds, because he's not legally obliged to accept English ten pound notes either. All these details and more are available in the Bank of England's Currency Fact Sheet.

While a great deal of mainland Europe is now using the Euro as a "street" currency, the United Kingdom is holding off for the moment.