Online backlash as English chemists bans Scottish banknotes

It's a familiar issue to generations of Scots when shopping south of the border.

Badham pharmacies, which operate from 17 locations in the south-west, are no longer accepting Scottish banknotes. Picture: Google

Banknotes accepted as a matter of course in Dundee can prompt confusion if used in Dunstable.

Now a chain of Gloucestershire chemists has become the latest business to publicly announce it will no longer accept Scottish banknotes.

Badham Pharmacy, which runs 17 stores across the south-west of England, has posted notices explaining that while the Scots money can be used in England, there is a difference between ‘legal tender’ and ‘legal currency’.

The notice was later shared on Facebook

The business owner blamed a ‘spate of forgeries’, but the decision has prompted outrage from Scots living in the county.

The notice read: “We are sorry but Badham Pharmacy will no longer accept Scottish or Irish notes as payment for goods

“Although they are Legal Currency, they are not Legal Tender, leaving it to the discretion of the retailer as to whether they accept them or not.

“Due to them being one of the most commonly counterfeited notes in the country and the difficulty in spotting a fake we have decided not to accept them.

The notice was later shared on Facebook

“We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause you and thank you for your understanding.”

The poster was later shared on Facebook by Angela O’Neill, a Scot living in Gloucestershire .

“I went into my local pharmacy and to my absolute horror read this,” she wrote in a message shared online.

“As a Scottish person I am deeply offended.

“Out of principle I will no longer use this company. It appears it’s OK to be downright offensive to the Scottish and Irish.

“I wonder if the Scottish government is aware of this?

“Please share and spread the world if you are in agreement that this is bang out of order.”

One Facebook user replied: “Perfectly legal tender anywhere in the UK! I’ve thankfully only ever had the odd ‘look’ but retailers have always accepted them.”

Peter Badham, the owner of the business, said it was not his intention to “offend or upset anyone”.

“We have done this because we have suffered a spate of forged Scottish notes recently,” he told Gloucestershire Live.

“I suppose because we don’t see them very often we don’t quite know what looks right and what’s wrong.

“I don’t suppose we are the only retailers to suffer this and when we get forged notes it’s only the honest customers who ultimately pick up the bill for it.

“So this is not slight against the Scots or anyone. We’re just trying to protect our business, our staff and the 99.99 per cent of our customers who are honest.”