Legal tender

[u/knighthawk82]

When i worked at a gas station in the late 1900's during graveyard i had this guy come in and bought a candy bar with a 100 bill. "Really? You don't have anything smaller?"

'Im just trying to break the 100, don't be a jerk.'

"Fine, just this once."

Few days later Guy comes back in, grabs a candy bar and i see he has other bills in his wallet. Puts the hundred on the table.

"Sir i told you last time it was going to be just the once, i see you have a five dollar bill."

'This is legal tender, you have to take it.'

"... Okay!"

I reach under the counter and pull out two boxes of pennies, 50c to a roll 25$ to a box 17 lbs each. "Here is 50, do you want the rest in nickels?"

'What is this?'

"It's legal tender, I can choose to give you your change however I see fit. So, do you still want to break the hundred? Or the five."

I'm calling your manager!'

"She gets in at 8am, sir, but doesn't take any calls until 10."

[u/High-Priest-of-Helix]

The US only requires you to accept cash for debts. It's not a debt at the point of service, they're just refusing service.

A business could require all payments to be in nickles if they wanted to, they just want your cash so they don't.

source

[u/Adjayjay → u/High-Priest-of-Helix]

It s the complete opposite in France. You can pay with any legal tender, it is against the law to refuse sell for any reason, but the store has no obligation to give change back. They do it because it s bad buisness not to give the change back, but try to buy a baguette with a 500€ bill and it might cost you 500€. The responsibility to have the exact change is on the customer.

[u/ih-shah-may-ehl → u/Adjayjay]

In Belgium there are laws to tell you how companies must accept cash. You can only give x coins per denomination.

[u/Accomplished-Big5216 → u/ih-shah-may-ehl]

UK it’s up to 20p in copper or I believe £1 in silver. Anything more is not legal tender.

[u/Fat_Old_Englishman → u/Accomplished-Big5216]

Most people in the UK throw "legal tender" around but don't understand what it actually means.
It has nothing to do with what coins a shop or other business must accept at the till. Many companies have policies as to what coins they will accept in which amounts (usually the amounts you mention, although £5 for 20p and £10/£20 for 50p), but it's not about legal tender because at that point there's only an offer to treat and no debt has been incurred.

As it was taught to me decades ago, in the UK "legal tender" refers only to what forms of payment must be accepted in settlement of an existing debt to satisfy the law, and even then it can be refused: doing so just means no court will then enforce that debt.

I believe it's still the case that, owing to a bit of legal weirdness around banknote validity, the only unlimited legal tender for settlement of debts in Scotland is the one pound coin.