Cash Money

While England might have the same Queen on their money, the cash money here is a bit different - notably in the denominations of the coins, and in the size of the notes.

One of the hardest parts of moving to Scotland was having to go back to using the penny... sorry, one pence coin. About the same size and colour as the penny, its also probably the easiest coin to deal with.

The singularly stupidest thing in this country is the two pence coin. Bad enough to have to go back to using a one pence coin, but a TWO PENCE COIN? I get that it makes it easier to give change, but my god... what a stupid denomination.

Next is the five pence, which is probably the most confusing coin for me, as it is about the same size as a dime.

The ten pence coin is one of the largest coins...

While the twenty pence coin goes down in size, but up in thickness.

The fifty pence coin is actually quite useful, especially since bus fares are generally £1.50.

The one pound coin is quite thick, probably about two coins pressed together. There is also a two pence coin which I didn't have one of, much like the toonie, they are less common, and appear to be one coin pressed inside a second one.

All of the coins next to a Canadian quarter for size comparison.

The bills here are also very interesting. They are issued by the individual banks, so while they are all the same size and close to the same colour (blue for £5, brown for £10, and purple for £20), they have different bank names and pictures on them. In terms of size, they are taller and less long than Canadian bills.

You also end up with notes from the Bank of England in the mix. Fun fact: while English pounds are accepted universally in Scotland, Scottish pounds, while technically legal currency, are often either scoffed at or outright refused in England, depending on where you are. Another fun fact: no bank notes, including Bank of England notes, are considered legal tender in Scotland.

The bills all also have something to the effect of "the bank promises to provide the bearer of the bill with £__ sterling when presented with the bill" - so the bank issues their own notes, on the condition that they can guarantee that they can provide pounds sterling in exchange, on demand. You can read more about the system here if you want.

Money Woes

The fun part of studying abroad is paying for it. As you may deduce, it is quite expensive to study overseas. I am lucky in that my program is only one year in duration, otherwise I doubt I would be able to afford it.

The easiest way for me to pay my tuition is by visa, and, given that my student status doesn't exactly make the bank want to give me a very high limit, I set up a six-payment plan for my tuition, just enough that each payment would be less than my payment limit. 

Alas, tragedy! The first of the month revealed a pending charge on my visa greater than my limit. Panicking, I attempted to raise my limit. No go. I then transferred the money onto my visa pre-emptively, hoping that if the payment was already there, the charge would go through. 

To my great relief, a check on my account this morning showed that it had gone through. However, this still left the question of why I got charged so much more than I had calculated. I prepared to go to the school and inquire, or to call the bank and see if they perhaps had charged me some mystery fee. 

The mystery was solved this afternoon, however, when I realized that they day the charge had been processed, the conversion rate had been up from the 1.5 CAD to 1 GPB it had been holding at fairly steadily all summer to 1.7 (it's now back down to 1.6). 

Lesson learned: the conversion rate is definitely something to keep my eye on.