Gas Station Employees Call Cops On Man Trying To Pay For Gas With $10 In Pennies

[Ghost in the Machine]

:eyes:

Man tries to fuel up for pennies _ $10 worth
Published: 6/20/08, 2:46 PM EDT

DENVER (AP) - Talk about squeezing every penny at the gas pump.

Denver police say clerks at a gas station had a run-in with a man who insisted on paying for his fuel with $10 in pennies on Thursday.

The clerks said they were too busy with other customers and vendors making deliveries to accept the sackful of cents. They said the man was insistent and became offensive, so they called police and referred to him as an "unwanted person."

http://my.att.net/s/editorial.dll?pnum=1&bfromind=7434&eeid=5942185&_sitecat=1522&dcatid=0&eetype=article&render=y&ac=-2&ck=&ch=ne

[briv1016]

1. He was only buying two gallons of gas?

[Tarc]

2. I've seen people do this before in stores, and I had to resist the urge to smack them

Some may think it is cute or clever, or take on the air of the besieged and wounded "but but but its legal tender!" victim, but really, its just juvenile and a pain in the ass.

Go dump it in a change-counting machine found at most malls or department or grocery stores to convert it to bills, go to a bank and have them roll it, or buy some wrappers and do it yourself.

Paying in change for anything that costs more than $1 or so is just simply not necessary.

[LSparkle]

3. Thank God for Coinstar -- it's kept me in food at tough times

It's the easier way to use your spare change when you're down to it.
Yes, you have to pay a service fee but it makes it less embarrassing
for the person using the change and easier for the store clerks
and other shoppers.

ON EDIT: Gas stations ought to install Coinstar machines, considering
how expensive gas has become.

[Wizard777]

56. If the store has no cashiers. Then I have no problems with Coinstar machines.

But if they do have a cashier. I have no problems with telling them counting money is your job. Why do you think you're called a "cashier?" You fuckin' idiot! When cashiers refuse to count cash. That's when it's time to fire their lazy asses and get some Mexicans to do the job they won't. It's really that simple.

[kath]

72. but damn, those Coinstar machines charge a pretty hefty surcharge.

what a ripoff.

[Posteritatis]

91. What are they, anyway?

The first place I've heard the term is all over this thread. I always get weirded out when the first mention of something I hear is people talking about its ubiquity. ;)

[dysfunctional press]

100. they're a private company with coin-counting machines...

they're usually in supermarkets- at least around here.

[TommyO]

94. Commerce Bank has their "Penny Arcade" coin counting machines

They have no surcharge, the machine counts the coins, spits out a receipt that you take to the teller, they give you the cash. That's what I use once I accumulate a jar of coins.

[dysfunctional press]

99. that's why i don't use them- i take my coins to the bank

they count them for free.

[newmajority]

6. money is money

Granted, he should have at least rolled them up first. It wouldn't take the cashier very long to count out rolls of change.

In any case, the man isn't a criminal. The assholes raising the gas prices are.

[dysfunctional press]

9. by federal law- you don't have to accept pennies for payment over 25 cents.

i was in traffic court when a guy tried to pay his fine in pennies- the judge made him take the money to a bank and get currency.

[gatorboy]

21. I'm calling bullshit on that federal "law".

Let's see a link to that, sparky! :rofl:

[dysfunctional press]

24. it's something i learned long before there was an internet...

so i don't have a link.

[gatorboy]

25. This is why the internet is a good thing.

http://www.snopes.com/business/money/pennies.asp

[dysfunctional press]

27. yep- apparently the law changed in 1965...

but when i learned it- it was still 25 cents maximum.

[RoyGBiv]

67. Yeah but ...

What you learned wasn't exactly correct.

It's a common misconception, but no private business has ever been required to accept coins or even bills of any specific amount unless a prior contractual agreement exists stating such terms. All the laws have ever said is that such and such type of coin or bill can legally be used to pay debts, assuming the creditor accepts it.

[dysfunctional press]

97. the coinage acts of 1873 and 1879 made them legal for debts up to 25 cents only.

so yes, it was true.

until the law was changed in 1965.

[gollygee]

53. The link also said that businesses are allowed to not accept pennies

so they don't HAVE to accept them, just like they don't have to accept anything over a $20 bill, but they have to have a sign posted.

[dysfunctional press]

64. "what do you mean you won't take a post-dated, four-party, out-of-state personal check...?"

"...if you're going to get picky, you should put up a sign!"

[cascadiance]

106. It would be nice to not have to accept pennies as change too. Owe us 4 cents, give us a nickel!

That would be a nice "counterbalancing" law!

Or if they don't accept pennies, and we owe $9.99. Then we can pay them $9.95!

[Wizard777]

109. I've actually had stores do that. Give me a nickle because they didn't have any pennies.

But I do agree with that. If a store will not accept pennies they shouldn't be able give them out either. That just contributes to the penny problem. Damn it! I knew it! It's a problem of their own creation. If they didn't give us the pennies in the first place. We wouldn't be able to bring them back.

Once I had girl that had refused to accept my pennies a few days earlier give me a nickle because they had run out of pennies. I told her, I bet you wish you had my pennies now. She says if you still have them I'll buy them from you. I told her you're damned you'll buy them from me. I'll only charge you a 10% service fee. You owe me 1.10 for every 1.00 of pennies I give you. She said, I can't do that. I told her, okay keep on giving out nickles for pennies knowing damned well the store will take this shortage out of your pay check. You might want to cut your losses now. I made .50 on the transaction. LMAO!

[14thColony]

115. That's the way it is on US bases overseas

Where the concessionaire (AAFES) doesn't want to pay the cost of shipping pennies all over the world. Everything just rounds to the nearest nickel, either up or down. And we don't miss the pennies at all.

[PeaceNikki]

49. Not true

http://www.snopes.com/business/money/pennies.asp

[dysfunctional press]

63. that's already been determined...

but before 1965, which is when i learned it, it was true. i wasn't aware of the change(no pun intended) in the law.

[ForrestGump]

81. I paid my fine in one-cent coins

as a protest for me being charged for dangerous driving when I was almost killed and was badly injured, 24 years ago, by some butcher (really..he was a middle-aged butcher, a cleaver of meat and a legitimate member of the community) who smacked into me (a hairy and leather clad young university student, so definitely NOT a legitimate member of the community) while I was aboard my motorcycle. I was indignant that I was charged, so much so that I showed up to court dressed in leather, boots and all, and fairly unkempt despite the (probably spot-on) insistence of a friend that I actually dress like the proverbial normal person. I argued my case and handily lost. The outcome was not surprising to me after I'd observed the proceedings, because this was some kind of wannabe hanging judge who even turned down the heartbreaking appeals of sweet little old ladies whose arguments sounded convincing to me.

I was proud of my decision to fight back, albeit totally in vain, by paying the fine in one cent coins. There were thousands. The only problem was that it wasn't the fascist judge who had to get them all counted but some lower-level clerk, so I ended up feeling bad about it when I heaved the bag across her countertop. Oh well. So much for justice.

This wasn't in the US, by the way.

But I did pay the almost $600 recently incurred here in Vegas in towing fees (also bogus...if I wasn't so swamped with other stuff I'd look at doing what I should have done two months ago, which is to take my condo's HOA to small claims court to recover at least some of that cost) in dollar bills. And I didn't feel a bit bad about it.

[dysfunctional press]

98. if it were in the u.s., the judge probably wouldn't accept it.

i've seen it happen.

[Wizard777]

112. Larry Flynt paid his fines in the thousands of dollars in One Dollar Bills.

He brought trash bags full of them to court everyday. The government cannot refuse to accept legal tender. If they do they refuse to accept payment and forego all right of collection on the debt.

[struggle4progress]

113. Here's what Treasury says:

... all United States money as identified above are a valid and legal offer of payment for debts when tendered to a creditor. There is, however, no Federal statute mandating that a private business, a person or an organization must accept currency or coins as for payment for goods and/or services. Private businesses are free to develop their own policies on whether or not to accept cash unless there is a State law which says otherwise ...
http://www.ustreas.gov/education/faq/currency/legal-tender.shtml

The $0.25 limitation on "minor coins" appeared in an 1873 statute but the language has apparently been superseded by subsequent amendment of the law; see http://www.mtas.tennessee.edu/KnowledgeBase.nsf/0/AB04FB8C07985FEC852570310052C341?OpenDocument

[Tarc]

12. Money is money, but a jerk is still a jerk

Seriously, there was no reason to do what he did. One of my old college roommates once had a $25 fine for something or other that he contested. After getting no where he just gave up and decided to pay it...in unrolled pennies. We all thought it was hilarious and had fun relating the story all the time...when we were 19. Looking back on it now many years later, it was pretty childish.

[Carnea]

51. In his defense most things i did in college at 19 were pretty fucking childish. nt

[Horse with no Name]

30. Most stores won't take rolled coins

because too many people try to fill the rolls with washers, etc.

[proud2BlibKansan]

35. Most merchants make you write your name and phone number on the outside

of the roll.

[pt22]

37. Ain't it the truth? There's a virtual epidemic of penny rolls filled up with washers.

Perpetrated by nefarious criminals who have discovered a place to buy washers for less than a cent apiece!
:rofl: :D :rofl:

[Horse with no Name]

41. Well smart ass

The stores in our area make it a policy NOT to take ANY rolled coins for that purpose because it is easier to exclude all than to exclude some.

[pt22]

44. I really am sorry that all the stores in your area are run by idiots.

I never had any problem buying stuff with rolled pennies around here, but we're just dumb Okies and don't know any better. :rofl:

[Yavapai]

48. Are you kidding us? Washers now cost more than the penny.

Want to triple your money? Drill holes in pennies and use them as washers.

As to the law someone mentioned about not having to accept pennies and nickels as payment. I heard that before the USA went off the silver standard, the law was that only coins that included silver were considered as coinage. Since pennies and nickels never had silver in them they were considered as "tokens". The old dollar bills were, (after 1934 or so) called silver certificates and you could demand payment for those in real silver (coins). Before Roosevelt, we were on the Gold standard and you could demand payment for your paper money in gold or silver.

Now we are on the Bullshit standard. If you have read this far, you owe me a (dollar!):evilgrin:

[druidity33]

114. most washers

cost more than a penny apiece...

:shrug:

[FedUpWithIt All]

38. Many places will not accept rolled coins n/t

[RoyGBiv]

57. Unfortunately ...

Clerks tend to have to unroll the rolls and count the contents. A tactic of short-change artists is to pay with rolled coins but short the roll or put genuine coins on the ends and "filler" in the middle. It's not used a lot, but it's used enough that some stores have policies about it and hold the employee responsible for shortages.

It all sounds kind of overblown, but it's an issue with some.

[enlightenment]

7. You'd just hate it in the UK, I can tell!

You pay with change for most everything under $10! :)

[Jed Dilligan]

14. I love that--ordering a beer and slamming down one coin to pay for it.

[EFerrari]

8. That's easy for you to say. Mobility requires $ and most poor people

have to plan every single move over and over to make sure they can get to point A, let alone to point B.

Please try not to smack any poor people today. Thanks.

[Name removed]

16. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[EFerrari]

20. Thank you for making my point.

:)

[dysfunctional press]

17. i've had clerks thank me for paying with $5 worth of change...mixed change- not pennies...

because it helps fill their tills for making change.

i assume that you've never had a job where you work for cash tips- you've got to spend it somehow.

[EFerrari]

23. There were days when I had to count out change.

I guess I was lucky not to run across @ssholes who don't understand that.

[niyad]

31. first of all, coinstar costs money, it is not a free service.

second of all, many places will not accept self-rolled coin, they have to count it. third of all, perhaps one doesn't have sufficient of any one coin to roll it.


it IS legal tender, and this is NOT "life takes visa". how nice of you to determine what is, or isn't necessary, for some people?

[slackmaster]

33. When I was 15 I worked in a store - We had a few stereotyical "older" customers

Who usually paid in change. They counted it out verrrrrrrrrrry slooooooooowly.

[proud2BlibKansan]

34. Don't you have to pay to use one of those machines?

My bank sent me to the grocery store and the machine charged a fee.

[kath]

74. yes, IIRC it's something like 8 or 9% - a ripoff. And how damned f-ed up is it that even BANKS no

now won't take rolled coins?? What the heck do waitstaff, etc do with their tips?

(used to be a waitress, and rolled many a roll of coins in my time - but got 10% of the value for 'em)

[LeftyMom]

86. My credit union has a machine for depositing change.

I know at least one other local credit union does, but not at all branches.

I don't pay any fee because I have an account there. Non account holders can use it for a 5% fee, which is cheaper than than the store machines.

I suppose, if one frequently had change from work, it'd be worth finding a bank that does that, and maybe opening up a free account.

[kath]

89. OOOPS- typo - make that "got 100% of the value for 'em"

typing too fast...

[Tarc]

103. It takes 9% out, not a big deal

[kath]

121. hey, if you don't have much money, losing 9 cents out of every dollar IS a big deal.

guess you've never had to pinch pennies, and have little imagination about what it's like.

[ThePowerofWill]

77. What if it's all the money they have available?

Should they do with out? What if thers no coin changing machine close. Lord knows it might take a body $8-10 bucks of gas to get too one.

Maybe you are the one who deserves slapping for you "poor me i can't be made to wait a second longer attitude.

The sad truth is the margin of survival may be a pocket full of pennies for more than a few.

[Leopolds Ghost]

79. Why are the convenience of customers with more money more valued by you?

It is a classist meme, the idea that people with penny jars are "trifling"
and "pathetic".

[Tarc]

104. Memes do contain a bit of truth, chief.

[midnight]

105. Wow. Some of us have been so lucky to have never

found themselves in this situation. It is sad that our D.U. community that has so many grand opinions has to use them to mock this situation as: just juvenile and a pain in the ass.

[no_hypocrisy]

4. A couple of things:

1. It would be a different story if the pennies were in intact rolls from a bank.

2. A penny, b/c of the copper, is worth more than one cent. Taking $10.00 of pennies would be worth more than a $10 bill or a credit card with a $10 charge.

[EFerrari]

10. People really don't get how hard these transactions can be

for the poor.

Maybe this guy was just an @sshole. But, working with homeless people here, I'm here to tell you, that man may have also worked for a long time to just be able to do exactly what he did.

[dysfunctional press]

13. pennies are made of zinc, not copper.

nt

[Jed Dilligan]

15. I think it's actually reached the point where the zinc plus the coating

(still of copper) are worth more than a hundredth of our plummeting dollar.

[no_hypocrisy]

19. What percentage?

Honestly, I don't know . . .

[gatorboy]

26. 95% zinc with a coating of copper.

[invader zim]

47. 1982 pennies

1982 was the year pennies were transitioned to the 95% zinc core. 1981 and older pennies are 100% copper. I'm sure if I'm wrong someone will correct me.

Zim

[RoyGBiv]

60. Depends on the year of the coins ...

Nowadays, you don't find a lot of the 100% copper pennies, but you can find enough in a hoard of them for the total value to be worth quite a bit more than the face value.

[dysfunctional press]

101. you'd need a whole helluva lot of them to make any kind of real value...

since 1982, pennies are 95% zinc...prior to that, they were 95% copper.

[Javaman]

22. only thing is a penny now is made mostly of zinc...

http://www.livescience.com/mysteries/070129_penny.html

[Wizard777]

62. Durring the war they were made entirely of Zinc. "Zinc pennies" is what that refers to.

[Javaman]

88. Did you actually read it?

"The alloy remained 95 percent copper and 5 percent zinc until 1982, when the composition was changed to 97.5 percent zinc and 2.5 percent copper (copper-plated zinc). Cents of both compositions appeared in that year."

[Wizard777]

93. Yes but durring the war they minted 100% Zinc Pennies. I have rolls and rolls of them.

When they were new they looked like silver pennies. But now they're all grayish or black. But they are 100% Zinc. No copper at all. Every bit of Copper we could our hands on was being used to make wire and electronics for Ships and planes needed for the war. When you say Zinc Penny. That is exactly what that refers to. The 100% zinc war pennies.

[last_texas_dem]

118. Here's one from 1943

[uppityperson]

5. "The man left before police arrived. Police say he was driving a satellite TV truck."

Best line of the story.

[gatorboy]

11. A "run-in"? What does that even mean? He was paying for gas.

Hey money's money. They have a law against using pennies to a certain point?

EDIT: apparently, they do!

http://www.snopes.com/business/money/pennies.asp

[Solon]

28. But only if there was a sign that specified that they will not accept pennies above a certain...

amount. So, unless this store had a clearly marked sign stating that they will not accept pennies above, let's say, 1 dollar, then they have to accept the pennies.

[ColbertWatcher]

59. THIS! n/t

[RoyGBiv]

65. Not exactly ...

The default method of payment for incurred debts in the US is any form of legal tender, but private businesses are not *required* to accept any of it for any reason unless a contractual agreement specifically states this. There is no specific prior contractual agreement in this case.

That said, it is certainly good business to post your payment policies.

[Solon]

68. It may have something to do with local or state regulations...

technically, for most retailers, there is no contract at all between customers and businesses. You don't sign a contract at Wal*Mart that you agree to pay for a pack of cigarettes with only 5 dollar bills after all. So the ONLY other thing to go on are clearly posted policies regarding currency, and for most places, particularly convenience stores, the only things they usually post are signs that say "No 50 or 100 dollar bills accepted" or something along those lines. If such a policy isn't posted, then the business in question enters the default agreement, as you stated, for all legal tender, from 1 penny up to 100 dollar denominations.

In any event, if this were my convenient store/gas station, and I acted like the clerks there did, I would be unemployed now.

[RoyGBiv]

71. Oh, I agree ...

It's just that the law on this is highly misunderstood.

I managed a store in a large chain for a number of years, and if I'd found out one of my employees did something like this, I'd have tied him to a rail for stupidity. At the very least, this was piss-poor customer relations and not at all acceptable.

Hell, there are rules all over the place for doing business transactions, but customer relations and just generally the desire not to be a total ass should trump a great many of them. Our corporate masters didn't want us to accept traveler's checks. (Complicated reasoning there, but if you thought of the most asinine reason in the world for not accepting them, I guarantee you the real reason was more idiotic.) But if I had a person standing in front of me who had just filled up and genuinely had nothing else other than a traveler's check, I wouldn't have been fool enough to call the freakin' cops. Take it and move on. The cops would probably have been justified in taking me to jail for wasting their damn time with such nonsense.

OnEdit: I wonder if this was a pre-pay station. You don't see many stations where you can pump before you pay around anymore. That could complicate matters, legally anyway.

[Solon]

75. The only exception is when you can't make change...

which can be a problem. If I just start out my shift, and the first customer I have hands me a 100 dollar bill, I'll have to get into the till to break it, but I'll still break the bill. It, of course, depends on how much they spent, but I've had people buy stuff for a dollar or two and hand me a 100 dollar bill before.

The only time I couldn't give someone change was because he won 500 dollars on a scratcher, that's a state scratcher lottery. We at gas stations are allowed to give people money for that up to 599 dollars, after that its taxed, and they have to go to the area lottery location to claim their money. Well, I simply didn't have 500 dollars, not in the till, and not in my drawer, so I said sorry, can't do that. Luckily my co-worker was still there, we were changing shifts, and she offered to take his ticket to the local grocery store to claim the money. So she did that for him, and got a 20 dollar tip in return, not bad, for her. x(

I sold the ticket in the first place, and got nothing from the guy! :P

[Solon]

18. I work as a gas station clerk, and had people pay in pennies plenty of times...

and guess what, if I was busy, and someone was paying in pennies, well then the people behind them have to wait while I count that shit out. I've counted out as much as 5 dollars worth of pennies, and, frankly, they could have counted out the 10 bucks worth in the amount of time it took to call the cops and for the cops to show up. Its your damn job, so do it. Yes its annoying, but that's what you are supposed to do.

[Terran]

43. That's how I feel too.

I've done several jobs where I operated a register, including a convenience store, and while it IS annoying, it's no worse than, say, dealing with WIC vouchers at a market, which I currently do. Some people (a lot, actually), need every cent they have to get along, and other people need to respect and deal with it and stop being so mean-spirited.

[Wizard777]

66. Exactly! A skilled cashier can knock that out in half the time it takes to argue about it.

[Solon]

70. Also, notice the article said "ClerkS" that's plural...

by myself, with no help, I could count that much in about 5 minutes, and do the simple things like service customers that need to pre-pay for gas at the same time. But for two clerks, have one hold onto empty penny rolls, and fill them as the other clerk counts the pennies in 50 cent increments, they could probably do it in half the time. It doesn't take long to count to a thousand, after all.

[Posteritatis]

90. Or an unskilled one with the right rolls

It's pretty hard in my neck of the woods to get coin rolls that aren't transparent plastic and very obviously sized for specific amounts of coins (they won't close at all if there's even one dime too many, and they rattle obviously if there's even one too few). If one of those penny rolls is filled and closed, there is exactly fifty cents in it, no more, no less. Fill, empty, repeat.

I've had a distressingly large pile of change piling up on one of my shelves all year that I kept forgetting to Do Something About until a few days ago. Got a penny roll, a nickel roll and a dime roll, and counted out about sixty bucks' worth of coins in various denominations in about five minutes.

It isn't exactly a challenge.

[Wizard777]

92. You can also weigh them instead of counting them. They have a specific weight prescribed by law that

the mint must adhere to. This applies to bills too. That's how the mint, federal reserve and the banks handle large transactions. They don't count the money. They weigh it.

[Posteritatis]

102. Yeah, though I wouldn't expect most corner stores/etc to have scales that good. (nt)

[Wizard777]

111. They had better be that good. Here in Maryland Weights and Measures can shut you down

until your scales are properly calibrated. The same with gas pumps. Scale fraud is one of the oldest unfair business practices in the book.

[Cleita]

29. I had people do it to me as a protest when I was a bartender every time the

management raised the price of a drink. I just made them stand aside and wait until I was free to count the change. That usually stopped it. They didn't want to wait for a drink.

[Jack_DeLeon]

32. Its only legal tender for debts...

people dont have to accept it if they are selling you something, they can simply choose to not do business with you. But if you are paying a debt they do.

[Freddie Stubbs]

39. Exactly. So if they guy hadn't actually pumped the gas, they could refuse to do buisness with him

[Hekate]

36. Rolling and labeling your coin stash is payment. A sackful of pennies is a statement...

...and a pain in the * for the clerk and other customers.

Hekate

[Blue_Tires]

40. called the cops?!?

[conspirator]

50. You know the man was out of control and he needed to be tasered n/t

[SmileyRose]

58. Ok that was funny - in a sick way.

[Trillo]

42. Sad.

"unwanted" people. Too little love? Too much hatred? We all have love and hatred within us, and we can bring it out of ourselves as well as others when we try.

It's sad we live in a predatory economic system of personal wealth so vast relative to the average working person's wage that the same system creates homeless folks out of some minimum-wage earners, that when folks go to spend the few crumbs they did manage to scrape off the floor, they're told by us their money is no good, that they're unwelcome and "unwanted", so much so that we invoke a real gun on them, simply because we're underpaid and overworked and are looking for someone to step on.

Sad. What good is struggling for money, if it can't be spent? Then it turns us against each other, so we don't notice the one around the corner collecting it all. Aye, there's the rub.

[pt22]

45. So much for the Quality of Mercy

:shrug:

[Theres-a]

83. Agreed. Eloquent and succinct. nt

[tom_paine]

46. What a sick and cowardly nation we have become!

I am full of shame.

Perhaps we deserve Bushie Tyranny, and perhaps we have not deserved the freedoms that were handed down to us, for quite some time.

Perhaps...

[ncteechur]

52. should have put the pennies on the counter and left. Check ya later!

[ColbertWatcher]

54. I can see now why some fear riots during the convention...

...with people like that clerk calling cops on a customer paying with money.

This is not a good sign.

[slampoet]

55. How DARE he be poor.

[ColbertWatcher]

61. He did it just to make the oil companies look bad. n/t

[Leopolds Ghost]

80. The gas station acted in good faith... on behalf of their oil company overlords.

Leave my oil company alone! ;-)

They work hard to make all that money, and I hear they reinvest it all
to bring even more benefit to hardworking people like me who look up to
the success of corporate executivs and aspire to be like them -- or at
least, aspire to rub shoulders with them in a broad, fictitious "upper
middle class" and not have to wait in line behind some grubby person.

[Solon]

69. Another thing, unless they can prove he was actually harassing them...

whether verbally or physically, then the store just lost a LOT of money, police charge for calls that aren't emergencies, its a waste of taxpayer's money and police time, so they get reimbursement from the store. In addition, these clerks may be out of a job tomorrow.

[Canuckistanian]

73. Do you have no "legal tender laws" with respect to coins?

In Canada "legal tender" is limited to this:

According to the Currency Act:

* 40 dollars if the denomination is 2 dollars or greater but does not exceed 10 dollars;
* 25 dollars if the denomination is 1 dollar;
* 10 dollars if the denomination is 10 cents or greater, but less than 1 dollar;
* 5 dollars if the denomination is 5 cents;
* 25 cents if the denomination is 1 cent.

If I tried this stunt in Canada, I'd be sent packing.

[Wizard777]

76. Actually we do have a legal tender law. We just allow people to opt out with advance notice

All monies distributed by the federal reserve are legal tender for all debts private and public.

[RoyGBiv]

85. Yes, but ...

"Legal tender" does not mean what legend has apparently led many people to believe it means.

This was said elsewhere in this thread and in other links, but I'll repeat it.

"U.S.C. 5103, entitled 'Legal tender,' 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.'"

*All* that means is that someone walking around with a truckload of pennies is not committing a crime by trying to use them to pay for goods or services. Nothing is in the statute that requires anyone to accept coin or paper notes. Certain state laws modify this so that some businesses and individuals are required to take certain denominations without a specific contractual agreement, but those laws aren't very restrictive, giving creditors wide leeway in how they deal with the acceptance of cash.

From the Treasury's own website:

This statute means that all United States money as identified above are a valid and legal offer of payment for debts when tendered to a creditor. There is, however, no Federal statute mandating that a private business, a person or an organization must accept currency or coins as for payment for goods and/or services. Private businesses are free to develop their own policies on whether or not to accept cash unless there is a State law which says otherwise. For example, a bus line may prohibit payment of fares in pennies or dollar bills. In addition, movie theaters, convenience stores and gas stations may refuse to accept large denomination currency (usually notes above $20) as a matter of policy.

It is, in other words, legal to "offer" treasury notes and coins as payment for any goods or services (as opposed to a note or coin printed by a state entity or a private company, preventing this sort of thing being the sole purpose of defining "legal tender"), but nowhere does the statute require its acceptance.

[quiet.american]

119. The thing is, who carries this around in their wallet for reference?

Sure, maybe Canadians do, but this is actually the first I've heard of this sort of thing. :)

[Leopolds Ghost]

78. "Unwanted Person"... Sounds like even some DUers would call the cops on him or "slap him"

:cry:

[ForrestGump]

82. He was not economically viable

Arrest him!

[Lilith Velkor]

84. What kind of fucking shitstain calls the cops on a customer paying with legal tender?

They should be fired and/or sued.

[Horse with no Name]

87. In all seriousness

the past few times I have got gas, I have noticed people sitting in their cars counting change before going in to pay.
I've done it myself before. I have never seen them met with scorn by the people in line or behind the counter. Most people understand that times are tough and getting tougher.
I used to could put $5 in my tank to tide me over until payday...now, that same $5 will just about get me to work ONE day.

[muriel_volestrangler]

95. I think the key bit here may be "insistent and became offensive"

and that they were busy.

While it may be the right thing to accept payment in the form of 1000 coins, it's also the right thing to not inconvenience other customers. I don't think there'll be a law stating you have to serve customers in the order they turn up, and if one is being a pain, I think they can say "wait till I've served the ones who don't delay everyone else". If, during that time, the guy became offensive, I can see there might have been a reason for the cops (it would depend on whether it's upsetting other customers, basically).

The article doesn't seem to say whether he left the payment, or went off without paying.

[demilib]

117. clerks calling cops over customer paying for gas with pennies

I would be upset too if I came into a gas station simply to
buy gas and the next thing I know I could possibly face jail
time over it. I think that there was overreaction on both
sides.

[Echo In Light]

96. So that's what the commotion was with the Black hawks the other day!

Sounds similar to the time I was pulled over in a small town for not wearing a seat belt, and the ordeal apparently warranted three squad cars and several Deputy Dogs to 'deal with the situation.' :rofl: Quack

[tridim]

107. What kind of a name is Gack anyway?

[Joanne98]

108. Isn't that sad! There's no mercy left in this world!

Just a bunch of hard cruel souls! YUK!

[pleah]

110. Oh, Denver again. Hmmmf.

:eyes:












"Man will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest." - Denis Diderot

[Imagevision]

116. At least the guy tried to pay instead of doing a drive-off...!

[eilen]

120. That was my thought n/t