This is true, although if the mechanic refused the money it wouldn't discharge the debt. It would just restrict the mechanic from being able to sue you to claim the debt. If the bill was £100 and you offered him £100 in Bank of England notes that he refused you would still owe him £100. But as you had offered to pay he wouldn't be able to take any legal action against you to try and recover the money by other means, unless he later tried to demand payment again and you refused to pay. As you say, legal tender is a bit of an anachronism anyway, and only refers to the settlement of debts. It doesn't really relate to the issue of shops refusing to accept Northern Irish notes, as that is a contract issue, not a debt issue. Bizarrely enough Northern Irish and Scottish notes aren't legal tender in NI and Scotland as well, and neither are English notes. So in theory you have no way to pay a debt in those countries if your creditor refuses to accept cash as payment!
Actually happened to my friend. Carpark charged £7.00 refused a tenner because they had no change. Told her to park up & get correct change, she refused, Police were called, she quoted that she had attempted to pay and attendant had refused so contract was negated. Police made them let her go. She actually laughed later because if the attendant had known enough they'd have known to take the tenner and be under no obligation to give back change as it isn't legal tender as you say lol. It's all a lot of nonsense. Its also why it was easier for Northern Bank to just replace all their notes after the big robbery, literally making the old note worthless. I find it amazing how much trust between us our entire economy is now based on. The reliance that the majority of people just follow a transaction system without thinking about how silly it is great: that it still boils down to a sheep for a goat & 2 chickens. One for the too many pints head lol....
Well that's definitely not the legal position - if tender is refused that doesn't discharge the debt. It's possible the police believed the car park was abusing a dominant position, i.e. taking advantage of the fact she couldn't leave to screw her around. Or they just decided to punish the attendant for calling the police for no good reason and for such a small debt. Aye, so much trust in paper money. I still find it amusing to read the bit on the notes that says "I promise to pay the bearer on demand the sum of". Always wanted to pitch up at the Bank of England with a tenner and say "Right, I'd like you to pay me the sum of ten pounds please" and see what they'd do...
It was originally in reference to its worth in gold wasn't it? But we removed the gold link from the currency ages ago or did I misread that?
Pretty much. Tho the gold link to the currency has been removed many times, usually during war time when governments wanted to spend more money than they had in gold. It fully died around the 1970s when the US finally joined the inflationary club to fund the Vietnam War. I reckon if I did walk into the BoE with a tenner and demand to be paid the sum of ten pounds, I'd walk out with ten pound coins...
I hope the BBC change it to 'English Sports Personality of the year' because there's no way that miserable **** should win it instead of Bradley Wiggins. (even though he was born in Belgium!)
Swarbs Did you ever activate the ''Invitation to treat'' rule with say a newspaper or a magazine? You can read the newspaper or the magazine whilst walking around a supermarket or shop and put it down. You've read either but there is no contract as you haven't gone to the cash register. You get the benefit without paying the money.
Stayed up till 02.30 and applauded like anything. Then saw his 'mate' Slurguson in the crowd..... Wish I'd backed Novak now.
