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You can't become independent, and remain using the UKs currency. Won't happen. If they do become independent, they will have to create their own currency, or j
by mibbitier 14y ago
You can't become independent, and remain using the UKs currency. Won't happen.
If they do become independent, they will have to create their own currency, or join the sinking Euro.
- rmc 14y agoSure you can. The notes look different anyway, so you could just peg the new Scottish pound at 1:1 with the UK pound. No reason you can't use the same currency as another country. Some non-EU countries (Montenegro and Kosovo) use the Euro and aren't in EU.
- protomyth 14y agoQuite a few countries are currently pegged to the US Dollar (e.g. Cayman Islands dollar), so it is not a new process for a country. Pegging to the UK pound would work better right now than going for the euro. On a currency side note, I do wish someone would not divide their main currency into 100's (decimal) so pennies wouldn't exist. How about being a nice non-decimal 12?
- jarofgreen 14y agoThe UK tried using non-100 divisors and gave up in 1971. http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/customs/questions/moneyold.htm http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/customs/questions/mo...
- protomyth 14y agoYeah, but thats beyond even 100 divisions, they had 240. I was more thinking along the lines of 12.
- rmc 14y agoWhat's wrong with pennies? Just aesthetics? Some countries don't go below 0.05 which is essentially dividing it into 1/20s.
- protomyth 14y agoIn the US, it is a cost issue. Pennies cost too much to make and people tend to lose them. I wish the US would get rid of the penny and nickel and go to a one decimal digit system instead of two. It would be better to go to 12 -> 1 just because of divisors (10: 1, 2, 5 or 12: 1, 2, 3, 4, 6). Much better for dividing food bills.
- gordonguthrie 14y ago12 isn't the key divisor it's 60 - basis of the Babylonian system (hence minutes and seconds, and 360 degrees in a circle) and historically the basis of the 'old money' in the UK (as those of us who can remember it call it): * pound - 240 old pence * 10 bob note - 120 old pence * crown - 60 old pence * half crown - 30 old pence * florin/2-bob bit - 24 old pence * shilling/bob - 12 pence * sixpence - 6 old pence * thrupenny bit - 3 old pence * penny, ha'penny (and before my time, farthing - one quarter of an old pence). Missing intervals are the groat (4 old pence) in the old Scotch money.
- protomyth 14y agoAgreed on the value of using 60 except it is too many divisions to make a coin profitably.
- justincormack 14y agoWhy divide at all? The yen has no fractions.
- mibbitier 14y agoOK, you could in theory, but it'd be stupid to base your currency on a country you just separated from, unless you wanted to be completely beholden to their economic policy.
- rmc 14y agoLots of countries do it. Ireland got independence from UK and pegged the currency for 50 years. When a country gets independent their economies are often quite tightly tied already, so the smaller country is often beholden to the larger country already.
- barry-cotter 14y agoThe Republic of Ireland broke parity with the pound sterling in either 1973 or 1976, I forget which. So there was either a 51 or 53 year long period in which you could take Irish currency to the Central Bank on dame Street and exchange it at par. It can be done without the actve co-operation of the country whose currency you're pegging. On a more mundane note the SNP currently seems to be aiming for devo-max, (devolution maximum) where Foreign and Defence policy stay with Westminster and in other matters Scotland is for practical purposes independent. Devil's in the details of course.