I READ with interest the letter from Patrice Fabien (May 5). Scottish banknotes are not and never have been legal tender in Scotland or anywhere else. Most accepted and recognised international currencies are issued by a central bank while, though denominated in sterling, Scottish notes are issued by three commercial banks, one of which is Australian-owned. It is little wonder that they were neither recognised nor accepted in Goa.
Conversely I cannot envisage a situation where a business establishment in Glasgow would freely accept or even recognise and certainly not be in a position to check the authenticity of an Indian rupee note if tendered by a customer making a purchase.
This could be one reason the ATM at Glasgow Airport dispenses Bank of England notes.
The Scottish pound note is probably only worth 0.8 of a penny plus the costs of printing and the paper it is printed on.
I think that Patrice Fabien would find that had Bank of England notes been proffered in Goa they would have been accepted and the necessary foreign exchange rate applied to determine the rupee equivalent. An alternative could have been sought through a commercial bank in Goa which would have accepted the Scottish banknotes on a ''clean collection'' basis disbursing the rupee equivalent upon realisation of the funds through their British correspondent bank. This process would have resulted in a time delay probably not acceptable to Patrice Fabien and the proceeds of the collection would then have been paid net of the local collection fees.
Perhaps the Euro will be in general circulation prior to the establishment of a Scottish Parliament and presumably this will be both more widely recognised and accepted as an international currency than the existing one.
There is a lot more to devolution than the general public realises or Alex Salmond has mentioned so far.
James McLachlan,
9 Riverside Court,
Linnpark Avenue, Glasgow,
May 6.
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