So I went to the UK earlier this year.
I went to London and Scotland.
Somehow, I got my hands on some Scottish Pounds issued by the Scottish banks.
In Scotland, Scottish pounds are valued 1:1 against English pounds, issued by the Bank of England.
In England and other parts of the UK, Scottish pounds MIGHT not be accepted. IF they are accepted, they are valued at 1:1 against the GBP. So that's fine.
I never knew this. So I brought Scottish pounds back to Singapore. Not much, just 15 pounds. I thought... pounds are pounds right? All in the UK, same same, no difference...
Well... WRONG.
I went to Malaysia recently. I wanted to exchange some of my small pound denominations to ringgit.
They accepted my Bank of England pounds but rejected my Scottish pounds. The money changer said. There's probably no one who's going to accept those where I'm staying.
That's when I started getting worried. So ......