A penny is a LEGAL tender.............and why they are not accept as money

[Catta]

So... bank notes are legal tender but illegal tinder?

[DerSenf]

In germany there is actually a law, saying every store has to accept coins up to a 100€ or 50 coin limit.

[Doktor Faustus]

I think the OP needs to read up on what legal tender actually is, no disrespect - it's a common misconception these days.

Legal tender is a medium of payment allowed by law or recognized by a legal system to be valid for meeting a financial obligation.

In the UK, a 1 pence coin (penny, £0.01) is only legal tender up to the value of 20 pence (£0.20) - beyond that it's entirely the choice of whomever you are settling a debt with as to if they accept it (according to the Coinage Act of 1971).

You can in the UK pay of your debts in £1 & £2 coins with an unlimited ceiling.

However, in the USA, all US coins and notes are declared legal tender in payments of all debts:

Title 31 (Money and Finance), Subtitle IV (Money), Chapter 51 (Coins and Currency), Subchapter I (Monetary System), Section 5103 (Legal Tender) of the United States Code states:

United States coins and currency (including Federal reserve notes and circulating notes of Federal reserve banks and national banks) are legal tender for all debts, public charges, taxes, and dues. Foreign gold or silver coins are not legal tender for debts.

[Sayier]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legal_tender#United_States

Last paragraph pretty much sums it up. There is no federal law that forces a private business to accept legal tender whether it's bills or coins.

[Adam Jensen]

If you're doing $10+ in PENNIES (that's 1,000 pennies) every month or so that aren't rolled, they probably would.

A couple dollars in any other denomination (or mix of) really isn't that much trouble if you're fast about counting it/ it's not busy

If I were a business man and someone payed me in rolled pennies, I wouldn't care. But if someone just dropped a pile on my counter, I'd deny them service and tell them to go fuck themselves (politely, of course. No need to be rude)

[Catta]

If you're doing $10+ in PENNIES (that's 1,000 pennies) every month or so that aren't rolled, they probably would.

A couple dollars in any other denomination (or mix of) really isn't that much trouble if you're fast about counting it/ it's not busy

i wonder why the US still utilize penies... the smallest coin in denmark is 50 øre, which is about 0,09 dollars - just recently they pulled the 25 øre out of circulation

[Deleted]

They should make OPs law enforced, I would so troll my mates working by walking in with jars of pennys.

[zerocarbs]

Pennies shouldn't even exist anymore, they are pointless

I'd rather get rid of the Federal Reserve. Because in the future you'll be saying the same thing about dollar bills.

[theredviola]

If someone came to me wanting to pay for anything in an insane amount of pennies I would inform the people behind him, or her, in line that I need to go to the back of the store and get our coin counting machine to count his "legal tender" and that they would have to wait.

[Rukentuts]

http://www.snopes.com/business/money/pen…

"Title 31 (Money and Finance), Subtitle IV (Money), Chapter 51 (Coins and Currency), Subchapter I (Monetary System), Section 5103 (Legal Tender) of the United States Code states:
'United States coins and currency (including Federal reserve notes and circulating notes of Federal reserve banks and national banks) are legal tender for all debts, public charges, taxes, and dues. Foreign gold or silver coins are not legal tender for debts.'"

"What this statute means, in the words of the United States Treasury, is that '[A]ll United States money . . . is a valid and legal offer [that's the key word here - Aron R] of payment for debts when tendered to a creditor. There is, however, no Federal law mandating that a person or organization must accept currency or coins as for payment for goods and/or services.'"

"That's it. All this means is that the Federal Reserve System must honor U.S. currency and coins, not necessarily anyone else. U.S. currency and coins can be used for making payments, but merchants do not necessarily have to accept it for all forms of business transactions."

[StayTuned]

well, the parking clock wont accept pennys, or any other currency around 0,1~ because they is simply no space in the machine for those mini-coins. Imagine you pay 1€ with 1cent pieces. The machine would be full within a few hours.

The shops deny it because they have no use for it. In the Netherlands, if you buy something for 1,99€ and you pay with 2€, they won't give you the 1c back. On the other hand, something that costs 2,02€ can be paid with 2€ and they won't ask for the remaining 2c.

[Larini]

1. roll pennies. take to bank. walk out with same amount in bills.
2. take giant jar of pennies to the grocery store. dump it in the coinstar machine. walk out with cash amount a little less than your starting amount.

[Agent Mercury]

Only time legally they have to take your pennies is if you owe them money and that is how your going to pay the monetary amount. At that point if they try to take a claim against you you can pay in pennies if you want and laugh at their legal costs.

[KingHorse]

Exactly as was stated above me. No company in the entire nation is is required to accept pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters or even dollars. It may be viewed as the 'national currency'

Viewed as? It is the only officially recognized currency in the US. Anything else is classified as bartering.

but there are numerous small communities around the nation that have began trading in their own local currency.

Again, you can trade food for Chuck-E-Cheeze tokens if you want to, but you're trading, not selling.

There is no law that requires a store or company to accept your pennies.

Absolutely right. But there is nothing that says they have to accept your game tokens either, so remember that when someone offers you a pile of them when you're selling your car.

[Lavoisier]

As a cashier I've had multiple people try to pay me in small change or say large bills for small purchases. I do sometimes like to screw with them if they're paying in pennies as long as I'm not holding anybody else up too. But seriously I can't accept a $100 for a $2 coffee when I am using a cash drawer with $200 total, that would mean nobody else can have any change. As for pennies, something I've done was simply smile at the customer and start counting but strike up a friendly conversation then 'lose count' multiple times until they get pissed and change their mind or start swearing at me at which point I simply refuse service. It may be a dick move but maybe next time they come in they'll see me and remember the guy that can't talk and count at the same time, and of course anybody trying to pay in purely pennies deserves this treatment.

[Doktor Faustus]

Do you have money bags in the USA?

You get them from a bank in the UK (small, plastic bags), fill with a set amount of a certain coin then take to the bank.

£1 in 1 pence or 2 pence pieces, £5 in 5 pence or 10 pence pieces, £10 in 20 pence or 50 pence pieces and £20 in £1 or £2 coins.

[Dakia]

I remember a case like this from my business law. There are two sides to the coin.

One, the business can refuse any customer for any reason.

Two, if a person attempts to pay in a legal currency (ie a ton of pennies) and that currency is refused, the customer can legally walk out of the store with both the product and the money legally.

As a manager of a grocery store, we where trained to always say that the store "chose to not do business with the customer." That gave us a legal out, if you will.

[Alski]

In my country we scrapped the 1c & 2c coins before i was born, and since then we have also scrapped the 5c coins. But large shops still like to charge in random amounts ($x.91-99 ect) but most people pay with eftpos/debit card so it hardly matters.

[geraldford]

Legal tender is just a basic concept to keep fiat currencies viable. The issuing governments have to create value for currencies that have no intrinsic value. That paper it is printed on isn't worth a damn. At least in the USA it is illegal to destroy minted coins, so you can't scrap a penny or nickel to turn them into something that is actually useful and has some value (pure metal).

Honestly, the only time this really comes up is when someone wants to force an issue. You either have some shitty customer that wants someone else to do all of the counting that they were too lazy to do after hoarding coins for ten years or a business that is trying to force payment of a debt.

In the first situation, it isn't a public issue and the business will handle it how they want. In the second situation, it is a court issue and a judge will work through it before passing judgement, if it even gets that far.

Just stepping into a courthouse is expensive and rarely worth it unless the debt is thousands or tens of thousands of dollars. When you hear about an old jerk paying his $200 phone bill with pennies "because of the principle of the thing" and the company accepts it, it just means they rather close the issue, avoid forcing payment in court when they were already offered cash, and have some low level slob do the counting for them.

[Morogoth]

Actually, a store isn't required to do anything for you. The only people legally obliged to accept your money even if it's in pennies if you are paying for something is the government.

A store has every right to tell you to get the hell out. Stores reserve the right to refuse service to anybody, barring racial profiling (which is illegal, of course). And if you came into my store with a jar full of pennies trying to pay for something, I'd tell you to get out, too.

Well, money is money no?

What is you decide to pay with only 5 cents, or 10 cents? What if you decide to pay your car with 25 cents? Well, i know this is the extreme, but the logic is there.

You say racial profiling is illegal, but "poor" profiling is legal? What if the guy only have some 1 cent to pay for his things?

If we don't want to use pennies, why we continue to print them?