Amid Brexit, a Different Common Currency Is Raising a Ruckus

Despite 300 years of union, pounds from Scottish banks—with icons such as Robert the Bruce and Robert Burns—aren’t legal tender in England; ‘It does my head in, the number of times people hold up my money and inspect it’

LONDON—David Swanson sheepishly shoved the bill back in his wallet. His crime? Trying to pay for two pints in a British pub with Scottish money.

A skeptical bartender instead had nudged him toward a credit-card reader on the bar top.

“I wish I had a pound”—an English one, that is—“for every time I’ve had to explain that they’re okay,” Mr....