A DUBAI bureau de change has raised eyebrows by offering different exchange rates for the pound sterling and the "Scottish pound."
A photo of a screen at Dubai Airport, taken on December 18, shows a currency exchange service which values the pound sterling higher than the "Scottish pound."
The bureau offers to buy the pound sterling for 4.31300 United Arab Emirates dirham but will buy the "Scottish pound" for just 4.30200 dirham.
The board also states that the exchange service sells the "Scottish pound" for 4.60300 dirham and the sterling for 4.85600.
Back in 2014, a board in Dubai airport went viral online after advertising the "Scottish pound" separately to the pound sterling in the lead up to the independence referendum, but the currencies were listed at the same price.
Although Scottish banknotes appear different to English banknotes, the currency in Scotland is not different from the rest of the United Kingdom in that it is also consists of British Pounds.
The British Bankers' Association said the rates on the board should not be listed differently.
A spokesman said: "The 'Scottish pound' is the GBP so they should not be listed differently nor should they have different exchange rates." But online, several social media users seemed to think that the different rates made sense, and said that the lower price for the Scots currency reflected its perceived "usefulness".
One user wrote: "At least they accept them. Problem is they can't easily sell them on, unless to Scots returning home, as has been endlessly discussed on here, other countries aren't likely to accept them due to them not turning up often. So they have send them back to the UK at a cost."
Another said: "Nothing unfair about it - it just reflects their perceived usefulness of the note in a place where they have no means to convert them."
One added: "It's not very fair I guess, but it's up to them. Not much we can do except always try to take BoE notes overseas." The issue with Scottish and English banknotes has recently caused controversy back in the UK.
Last month, a McDonald's customer went viral after filming himself arguing with a member of staff who refused to accept a Scottish five pound note.
McDonald's later claimed the note had failed to pass through a machine which checks genuine bank notes.
But the Scot said staff had never suggested the note was counterfeit.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel