Embrace it?

Less cheekily, I think Kong like instruments when properly adapted could capture the best parts of local currencies (like the Bristol Pound), the messy parts of multi-governmental currencies (like the Scottish Pound), and the nice bits of computer validation.

In your example specifically, the Royal Bank of Scotland can still mint Scottish Pounds but back them on chain by UK pounds.

I'm of course hand-waiving the problems here - we've made a programmable monetary instrument. One can program things well or badly to support this kind of interoperability.

Ach, while I might agree with some of your sentiment, I can't help but feel it's unrealistic; yet I accept that attitude is part of the problem.

But I was led to believe that whenever you get questioned, a Scottish person will appear out of nowhere to declare it's legal tender [0]

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gx-a5rYIAOM

I mean they are not "not technically" legal tender, they are not legal tender and that is why you have problems with them being accepted (because they don't have to be!)

Given Scottish notes are defacto legal tender, and have been since forever, yes, I do think it's fair to call it a technicality - there literally isn't a bank in the whole of the UK that would decline Scottish notes.

Also, while I do sometimes have problems with them abroad too, it's 50/50 - I've had them accepted in all sorts of places, including India, Nepal and China

There is no such thing as "defacto" legal tender. By definition only legal tender must be accepted as a form of payment - you can choose to accept something else but you don't have to.

Sorry, but (at best) this is pure pedantry.

Literally every bank in the UK will accept Scottish bank notes - if that's not a defacto legal tender, I don't know what is.

It's a very common misconception, there is no requirement for Scottish banknotes to be accepted as payment anywhere in the UK (including Scotland!)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banknotes_of_the_pound_sterlin...

I have no misconceptions here - I know Scottish bank notes are not technically legal tender, and thus, technically, nobody is under any compulsion to accept them.

But in the real world, they are absolutely defacto legal tender - as above, every bank in the UK (and even many beyond) accepts them.

I think the quarrel here is about the definition of "legal tender". Its literal meaning is not "reliably redeemable at a bank", but rather "required to be accepted by anyone as payment of a debt". These can diverge easily. For example, I remember that Sweden changed its banknotes a few years ago, but the old notes were redeemable at banks for a set period of time. The old notes were definitely not legal tender in the technical sense because private individuals and shops not only were not required to accept them, but actually did not accept them anymore. That doesn't work well with the definition of legal tender!

However, the old Swedish notes had not lost their value because they could still be redeemed.

In a formal legal tender situation, you could to some extent require a private party (within the relevant jurisdiction) to accept the notes in payment of a pre-existing debt. You could contrast this with "having value", "being redeemable", "being in circulation", and "being widely accepted", maybe.

Reminds me how bus drivers (and the like) won't accept highly denominated bills around here - while legally they ARE forced to accept them , but aren't required to give the change. (I haven't had the opportunity yet to see if I would be able to convince them that this is indeed the law.)

Just personalize the currency to your bank teller. Would Mark reject a deposit in SuperMarks?