I have some issues to discuss vis-à-vis being an American in Britain but they're too long-winded to fit in a single entry so, instead, I'll just tell you about how I came to buy a new wallet. 

I've carried a money clip for as long as I can remember.  The reason for this isn't because I had too much money to fit in my wallet and I liked to flash big wads of cash around; quite the opposite.  For longer than I like to admit, what little money I had I never hung onto long enough to justify taking my wallet out of my pocket, so I got into the habit of stuffing the few bills I did have into the front pocket of my jeans.

Later, when I had a few more bills and found it more convenient to keep them orderly, I resorted to using a large paper clip.  Then, for Christmas one year, I was given a real money clip, and that was it.  From then on, I always, only carried my bills in a money clip.

Even in America this is not a common practice, but the few who remarked on it seemed to think it was classy.  For the most part, however, it wasn't even noted and I never thought much about it.  The money clip transferred to the UK without a great deal of trouble.  I simply traded in my greenbacks for the multi-sized, multi-colored UK bills and life went on much as before. 

Then a reader of this website (a Brit, no less) sent me a link to a very fine and educational book called "Passport to the Pub -- The Tourist's Guide to Pub Etiquette" which illuminated the issues I referred to earlier.  Apparently, I'm not blending in with the native population as well as I had thought.  Even after all this time, certain cultural hangovers continue to brand me as an American.  One of them is the way I handle money. 

Back in the States, pulling a money clip out of one's pockets, peeling off a bill and laying it on the bar doesn't draw any undue attention except, perhaps, from enterprising pickpockets.  The size of your wad in America roughly equates to, well, the size of your wad. 

Money is power.  Money is status.  It may be a bit gauche to flaunt it in an obvious way (wearing fur-lined capes and pinkie rings sporting diamonds the size of Chiclets™ is still considered tacky in most circles, except maybe in Las Vegas), but no one goes through any pains to hide it, either. 

"A round of drinks for the bar!"  "Let me buy you a drink!"  "Keep the change!"  They all say the same thing: "I have money, lots of it!" 

In Britain, money is vulgar, and that's something my American, Capitalist brain has a very hard time getting around.  You don't pull out a bill and lay it on the bar here; you pay the barman, he gives you the change and you put it in your pocket.  All of it.  You don't tip him. 

Near as I can figure, saying "Keep the change" is like saying, "I don't need that little bit of money, but you do, so why don't you keep it."  It's an insult, and therefore frowned upon.

Even buying someone a drink is difficult.  You can't just say, "Let me buy you a drink" because it implies money is involved.  Even the seemingly innocuous, "Can I get you a drink" has the implication of a favor being bestowed and is best to be avoided.  What's more acceptable is: "And one for yourself?" 

I'm not really opposed to sticking out as an foreigner; I hang on to my American pronunciations and language for the most part (I mean, I'm not going to try anything as daft as attempting to talk like these people) but I have no desire to be vulgar, or to offend, and I certainly don't want to add to the image of the ugly American.  So, while out shopping one weekend--and with an eye toward making a clean break--I bought a new wallet, tossed out my old one and retired my money clip.  Now I no longer feel self-conscious when I buy drinks in a pub; holding a wallet is perfectly acceptable whereas holding a money-clip is something, well, something an ugly American would do. 

Now all I have to do is learn to stop saying, "Keep the change."

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