It is a shield for debtors, not a right for shoppers.
If you offer to repay a debt in full with legal tender - and no contract requires another method - the creditor cannot sue you for failing to repay. That narrow protection is the whole trick. It does not force a shop, café or bus to accept your cash.
The Scottish wrinkle is sharper than the usual myth: Scottish notes are not legal tender in Scotland, and Bank of England notes are not either. In Scotland and Northern Ireland, only Royal Mint coins qualify.
Bank of England: legal tender →Not legal tender. Still backed pound for pound.
Three peaks. Twenty-four hours. Thousands of voices kept.
On 14 August, the Twenty4Seven Education team plans to climb Ben Nevis, Scafell Pike and Yr Wyddfa (Snowdon) inside 24 hours. The page supports Legasee’s Local Heroes programme, which trains young people to film and preserve stories from their own communities.
Back the Three Peaks team →The pound coin has a secret it will not show.
Monday: why Britain abandoned the round pound, how a 12-sided coin defeats counterfeiters, and the machine-readable security feature hidden inside its material.