Following John Tuttle's posting I can assure people that it is not
illegal to send paper money out of Great Britain by mail.  On a few
occasions when I have bought items from Americans who were unable to
accept either PayPal or Visa/Mastercard, I have bought U.S. dollars
from my local currency exchange and posted it 'International Signed
For'.  This covers up to GBP 500 in the event of loss.  This still
works out cheaper than sending a Dollar Draft.  I have also done the
same when buying items from Germany in Euros.

In recent years PayPal has gone multi-cultural so we are now able to
send denominations other than USD to anywhere in the world.  There
still remains the problem that small businesses may not take plastic
or PayPal due to the charges made, leaving cash the only option, but
at least it is legal for we Brits!

Best wishes,
Nicholas Simons, GB