TheCoilist
Elite Member
While those laws do truly exist they aren't enforced. I remember as a child many a store refusing $2 bills. I also remembered why my dad said people wouldn't carry them, but I can't even say it on here. Even in recent years I've been to several places that REFUSE coinage. I had a few dollars in coins I tried to use at a gas station and it was refused because they said they had a rule against having to count out lots of coins. My credit union refuses to accept ANY coins unless they are rolled in paper rolls with your name and checking account# written on the side.
If it's not posted, they have to accept it. That is the law. If the sale has been completed, they must accept your legal tender regardless. They don't have to accept higher than say $20 bills for gas stations or places like that simply as policy.
In the Coinage Act of 1965, specifically Section 31 U.S.C. 5103, entitled "Legal tender," which 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."
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.
BUT... IF they accept pennies, dollar coins, $2 bills, or whatever on a normal basis, they CAN NOT pick and choose when to or when not to accept them. If they accept a handful of pennies they must accept a 675 pennies. If they refuse to take an oddity like a dollar coin or $2 bill, they must have it posted as such before credit/debt is made.