I am positive it is a crime to offer counterfeit currency as payment for a good or service. However, is it a crime to offer historical US currency or currency of a foreign country as payment for a good or service in the United States?
I believe it is U.S. government policy that all U.S. coins and currency are legal tender, no matter how old they are.
AFAIK, you can offer foreign currency, or just about anything else, as payment for a debt. That doesn’t mean that they have to accept it.
You can offer it but it does not have to be accepted. A creditor can turn down cash as payment in lieu of other payment methods. I know of a wholesale grocery outlet that will not accept cash, payment must be by check, credit card, debit card, or if they have one, charged to their account.
If you feel so inclined, you can even try paying for things with non-government currency such as the Liberty Dollar. Some fellow decided that he didn’t like US currency and went and made his own money, backed by silver. Since it makes no attempt to look like Federal currency, there’s nothing illegal about it. That said, if the guy at the gas station refuses to accept your liberty dollars, you’re not gonna get that tank of gas no matter how much silver is backing the money.
Yes, U.S. currency from all periods since the ratification of the Constitution remains legal currency (although it is often worth much more as a collectible than at its face value). The U.S. Treasury has considered “demonetarizing” from time to time, such as when there was a rash of counterfeit $20 bills in the late 1980s IIRC, but has never done so.
It seems to me that you can pay someone, IF he or she consents, with just about anything, including foreign currency, old U.S. currency, or goods or services (so long as the deal isn’t illegal - i.e. providing something in return for sex, if that would be defined as prostitution under local law).
How can someone refuse cash? It says on the dollar bill “This note is legal tender for all debts, public and private”. I’ve gone to places where they’ve had signs that state that cash isn’t accepted, and I’ve paid cash there. I always assumed that the sign was for discouraging holdups.
IANAL, but buying something isn’t a debt, legally speaking. The transaction occurs at the time of the sale; so if the seller doesn’t want to accept currency, there’s no sale and no debt. Presumedly, most contracts for buying something on credit, like a car, outline what the acceptable forms of payment are somewhere in the fine print.
Hmmm… The plot thickens.
I went to pay an insurance bill at an office with a “no cash accepted” sign, and didn’t have any problems with using cash. Does anyone else have any info on this? Any lawyer types here?
I think the key issue is whether the seller placed a condition on the sale before it took place.
Complicating things is the story of Mr. Boggs:
I suspect this question has been mooted before on this board. I recommend a search by those who have the ability.
In general, under 31 USC 5103, coins and folding money issued by the United States are “legal tender for all debts, public charges, taxes and dues.” Presumably, this makes it the law of the land that US coins and paper money must be accepted in those cases; I don’t see that there is any penalty, however, for a failure to accept them as such.
Some states have legal tender laws of their own. For example, as I recall, Missouri forces you to accept as legal tender all silver coins minted by the United States. Not very applicable any more.
Refusal to accept money should be dealt with the most economical way: don’t shop there.
I think legal tender used to be more of an issue in the past, when gold and silver coins were circulating along with paper money.
United States Notes (1928 and earlier) bore the marking “This note is legal tender at its face value for all debts public and private except duties on imports and interest on the public debt.” I’ve always been curious about the exclusion of “duties on imports and interest on the public debt”.
Getting back to the OP, the issue with counterfeit money is the fraud attached – you’re paying a dollar debt with something that isn’t a dollar but which the merchant reasonably believes is a dollar. If, on the other hand, you choose to pay the merchant in renminbi, that’s jake so long as the merchant understands what the tender is and you come to a legitimate agreement as to how many renminbi you have to give him to get your widget. Hell, you can pay in leaves or blades of grass iff the merchant is willing to accept them.
That said, because counterfeit money is contraband, you can’t legally pay in that even if the merchant knows about it, anymore than you can legally pay in heroin or slaves. And currency of foreign nations is often regulated because governments don’t want a money supply available that they can’t control. I don’t know that that’s the case in the U.S. (I doubt it is, excpet maybe w/r/t the Cuban Peso or the North Korean Won, etc., but I don’t know.)
–Cliffy
I don’t know if it’s still the case, but years ago (in the 70s) I had no problem using Canadian money in U.S. areas near the border, and vice versa. Most shops had the exchange rate handy.
Standard legal disclaimers apply:
To answer the OP, there is no federal law that states a creditor must accept US currency to discharge a debt. See Ohio v. Carroll,_ Civ. Act. No. 96-2236; however, since I do not have Lexis active as this time, I will assume that this is true. I believe the reasoning for this is stated in the UCC (Uniform Commercial Code), as another poster alluded to, the buyer and seller implicitly agree on an exchange in cash, though, that not always need be the case. The buyer and seller can agree to an exchange in McDonald’s hamburger.
Local laws can be more specific about payment methods for debt. They can instruct their offices to not accept any cash at all.
This appears at variance with the citation I made to 31 USC 5103. Care to comment?
The law you cited only comments on the nature of US money. It doesn’t state how transactions are supposed to be conducted. That’s what the UCC is for, which, are at most times, a suggestion.
The words “legal tender” have a specific meaning, sir. They mean that the money inquestion must be accepted. If they mean that, then the law of the land requires that they be accepted. N’est-ce pas?
So does the word “debt”. A transaction, as I understand it, is not a debt.
Keep in mind, the bills also say “In God we Trust”, which, as far as I recall, is not the law of the land.
They still accepted American dollars in Vancouver when I was there three months ago, but gave me my change back at par–that is, at a dollar for dollar rate. Since the US dollar is worth a bit more than the Canadian, it was a losing proposition.