{"id":1536,"date":"2013-03-20T08:26:29","date_gmt":"2013-03-20T08:26:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.blueeyedsun.co.uk\/blog\/?p=1536"},"modified":"2013-09-14T09:55:57","modified_gmt":"2013-09-14T08:55:57","slug":"what-is-legal-tender-in-the-uk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.blueeyedsun.co.uk\/blog\/what-is-legal-tender-in-the-uk\/","title":{"rendered":"What is legal tender in the UK?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.blueeyedsun.co.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/WhatIsLegalTender.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-2506\" title=\"What Is Legal Tender in the UK?\" alt=\"What Is Legal Tender in the UK?\" src=\"https:\/\/www.blueeyedsun.co.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/WhatIsLegalTender.jpg\" width=\"800\" height=\"363\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.blueeyedsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/WhatIsLegalTender.jpg 800w, https:\/\/www.blueeyedsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/WhatIsLegalTender-300x136.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.blueeyedsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/WhatIsLegalTender-500x226.jpg 500w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Have you ever wondered what constitutes legal tender in the UK and how this affects you as a retailer? You may recall the funny episode of The Office below where David Brent suggests that postage stamps are legal tender and that a bus driver would have to accept them as a fare. Well here are the facts&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>According to the Coinage Act of 1971, 1ps and 2ps are only legal tender\u00a0<em>up to the value of 20p<\/em>. But that doesn&#8217;t mean you can&#8217;t pay more than that in pennies if the person or business you&#8217;re paying agrees.\u00a0Legal tender has a very narrow meaning in the UK. Put simply, you can&#8217;t be successfully sued for non-payment of a debt if you give the correct amount of money in legal tender. That&#8217;s it.\u00a0Everything else is up to the two parties involved in the transaction.<\/p>\n<p>And fans of wacky ways to protest can take heart from one thing: \u00a31 and \u00a32 coins are legal tender up to any amount you like. Even if they&#8217;re frozen in ice or put in a bathtub full of honey.<br \/>\n<strong><br \/>\nWhat coins can you pay with:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>1p &#8211; for any amount not exceeding 20p<\/li>\n<li>2p &#8211; for any amount not exceeding 20p<\/li>\n<li>5p &#8211; for any amount not exceeding \u00a35<\/li>\n<li>10p &#8211; for any amount not exceeding \u00a35<\/li>\n<li>20p &#8211; for any amount not exceeding \u00a310<\/li>\n<li>50p &#8211; for any amount not exceeding \u00a310<\/li>\n<li>\u00a31 &#8211; for any amount<\/li>\n<li>\u00a32 &#8211; for any amount<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>The rules for notes:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>You can pay any amount in bank notes but:<br \/>\n<strong><br \/>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Bank of England notes are not legal tender in Scotland or Northern Ireland<\/li>\n<li>Scottish and Northern Irish banknotes are not legal tender in England and Wales<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>But while shops are under no obligation to take Scottish or Northern Irish notes in England and Wales (and vice versa), as\u00a0<a title=\"Bank of England explains legal tender\" href=\"http:\/\/www.bankofengland.co.uk\/banknotes\/Pages\/about\/faqs.aspx#16\" target=\"_blank\">the Bank of England explains<\/a>\u00a0in practice you may well have no problems at all using them.<\/p>\n<p>The Royal Mail confirms that <a title=\"Postage stamps are not legal tender in the UK\" href=\"http:\/\/www.royalmint.com\/corporate\/policies\/legal_tender_guidelines.aspx\" target=\"_blank\">postage stamps are not legal tender<\/a>.\u00a0While you are free to accept stamps as payment for a service or goods, there is no legal obligation for you to accept them when offered and you have no legal recourse if payment in stamps is refused! Although, as a retailer you have the right to refuse a sale regardless of the tender offered (legal or otherwise).<\/p>\n<p><a title=\"Free retail report on growing profits\" href=\"https:\/\/www.blueeyedsun.co.uk\/free-retail-report\" target=\"_blank\">Click here to download our free report on 12 ways retailers can grow their profits.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>And here below is the clip I mentioned from the Office for you to enjoy. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/3ZtDNhaP4h8\" height=\"450\" width=\"800\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Have you ever wondered what constitutes legal tender in the UK and how this affects you as a retailer? You may recall the funny episode of The Office below where David Brent suggests that postage stamps are legal tender and that a bus driver would have to accept them as a fare. Well here are [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>What is legal tender in the UK? - BES Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Have you ever wondered what constitutes legal tender in the UK and how this affects you as a retailer? Well here are the facts...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.blueeyedsun.co.uk\/blog\/what-is-legal-tender-in-the-uk\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What is legal tender in the UK? - BES Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Have you ever wondered what constitutes legal tender in the UK and how this affects you as a retailer? 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