A Promise.

Today is Tiny Tuesday, hosted by JensPhotos and, while I’m a stickler for rules, I do like to stretch them a little. So here is my justification for presenting this five pound note which was tendered at the cinema on Sunday. I also want to use it as part of a longer essay for the writing group which meets in a few weeks' time.
 
First, it is the tiniest denomination of note in circulation in the U.K. at present although, technically, the Scottish one pound note is still legal tender I haven’t seen one for a few years now.
 
Second, I was quite a young lad when I first saw a five pound note, that was probably about 1950 as I think I just knew numbers in that year but was still pretty green. It was a big white offering and had to be folded into four to fit inside my grandmother’s purse. Weighing in at 212 by 134 mm (eight and a half by five and a half inches), and


Third, this specimen which is only 1345 mm by 70 would be dwarfed by its fore-runner. It would be dwarfed in value as well; the white fiver would be worth about £165 in today’s money and was probably a lot more than my grandfather earned in a week as a skilled carpenter. This five pound note would probably be sniffed at by the child of today if it were presented as a week’s pocket money.
 
When I first moved to Scotland many years ago, my temporary landlady told the story of travelling to Ireland and trying to pay a bill with Scottish currency; it was politely refused with the recommendation that she get it changed at the local bank where, of course, they exchanged it for Irish currency. Back then I had to collect a stock of English money before travelling south as, apart from the motorway service stations, provincial notes were treated with great suspicion.
 
I have yet to establish whether or not the local bank will accept this when I offer it up.