Pay With Pennies Go to Jail!

My bank has an automatic coin counter machine in the lobby. How hard would it have been to have someone take the coins to the bank and have them counted. Anyway they should have taken the pennies for the scrap value at least.

Cash

Cash usually refers to money in the form of currency, such as banknotes and coins.

Cent (or one penny)

In many national currencies, the cent is a monetary unit that equals 1/100 of the basic monetary unit. The word also refers to the coin which is worth one cent.

Yup, yup: According to the above word definition of 'cash', those hard earned pennies are a legal form of currency which those nitwits should have accepted in the first place.

[edit on 2008-12-16 by pikypiky]

i would believe since it is a legal form of currency and they accept cash they should have to accept it even he was being an ahole to do so. i save all my $1 bills and coins and every year i give over $5000 to the darn taxcollector with them. screw them -they can count it. never had a warrant for my arrest for it. and if anyone is a nascar fan you may remember rusty wallace getting a $5000 fine he didn't agree with so he had an armored car full of pennies show up in front of everyone to pay them just to be a jerk like he was. as for this case i doubt the warrant for his arrest was for paying in pennies- there is more to this story than that i bet

reply to post by semperfortis



Semper, it is a government facility. Not a private business. That is what is being distinguished.

AAC

reply to post by Phage


No he is given a warrant for non-payment. He tried to pay, and was refused when he offered payment.

AAC

reply to post by AnAbsoluteCreation


I found a couple of other stories. It seems it's been going on for a while?

The guy is a smug jerk but that's not a crime.

reply to post by Phage



Perhaps he is a jerk. I am just surprised that a government office didn't realize they would ultimately be liable for not taking a government currency as payment.

AAC

Originally posted by Phage
Why the assumption the warrant had anything to do with the pennies?

That's what I thought. He in the middle of being a clown when they informed him. A warrant takes a bit of time to issue I imagine, so I doubt it would have anything to do with this.

I bet they enjoyed informing him, though.

reply to post by semperfortis


Depends on the situation, if I walk into a bar open a tab and pay for that tab in coins they have to accept the currency or else I get it for free. Same thing with anything else that you get served and they expect payment after the product or service has been delivered. Now if you go to prepay and they don't accept the payment then that is legal you can't just walk out with the product.

I should have been more clear.

www.treas.gov...

Of course the answer the treasury gives in this fact is very vague, then there is also the situation that didn't happen to long ago where the government step in and confiscated all the liberty dollars, so where is the line I guess its up to how the cops and if it goes even further how the judge feels that day.

reply to post by AnAbsoluteCreation

ROFL!! A very convient way to pay for your tickets, and to minimize space in your closet. I'm gonna have to try that sometime. I got about 10 or 11 rolls of pennies.

reply to post by AnAbsoluteCreation


This brings me Deva vu, when my husband and I were nothing but a young couple back in the days, we used to roll pennies for everything, (as we didn't have much in those early days) we used them to buy groceries, gas and anything we thought about.

Never had any problem in any places we went.

Hard to believe all this years later that we were nothing but a broke young couple.

There's always someone pushing the envelope.

Didn't some guy once write a check on a dead fish and present it as payment?

His basic problem would be finding a state employee capable of counting to such a high number.

There is probably a municipal or state law where he lives where you aren't allowed to pay in pennies if its over a certain sum.

Where I'm from, its "illegal" to pay with pennies if the item is over $1... or $5.. I forget.

I put illegal in quotation marks because I don't think its actually illegal in the sense of getting arrested for it, but something that is discouraged.

Its too bad no one seems to actually know about this, as last month I was stuck in a lineup for 15 minutes at a convenience store because some kids bought $15 worth of candy, and all they had were 1500 unrolled pennies....

[edit on 16-12-2008 by ben420]

Originally posted by ben420
Its too bad no one seems to actually know about this, as last month I was stuck in a lineup for 15 minutes at a convenience store because some kids bought $15 worth of candy, and all they had were 1500 unrolled pennies....

[edit on 16-12-2008 by ben420]

Fifteen WHOLE minutes, wow, how did you survive.

I can see how 15 minutes out of your life must have just been the biggest inconvienience you have ever experienced.

Note: I like to pay with Susan Bs($1 coins for non USers) and $2 bills. I love the look on the face of cashiers when they get the $2 bills. Two days ago I paid with one and the guy acted liked he had never seen one before.

Vas

reply to post by AnAbsoluteCreation


I'm glad you posted this. I actually thought about doing this myself just the other day, but never got around to following through with it.

Most people who have a warrent out for their arrest don't know about it. That doesn't suprise me...

I think the next time my Harley gets a disturbing the peace ticket I'm going to try and pay in unrolled dimes..

Originally posted by semperfortis
reply to post by Hastobemoretolife

 

No,

You don't "get it for free", you just don't get it...

In every state I am familiar with, any merchant may refuse service to any patron for any reason as long as it is not based on discrimination. ie. Sex, Race, Age etc.

They can simply refuse to serve you and it is perfectly within their rights.

Actually, in Alaska, if you go to pay a bill and the merchant does not accept your payment, i.e. cash, coin, check, credit card, you actually do "get it for free." This primarily applies for things such as cable tv, phones, taxes, etc...

reply to post by munkey66


In the UK there is a limit on the number of coins that can be used in transactions that require legal tender, such as paying fines in court.

Paying for other things such as the weekly shopping could be done soley with coins if you wanted to waste a little time as they don't require legal tender.

Royal Mint website
Coins are legal tender throughout the United Kingdom for the following amount:

£5 (Crown) - for any amount

£2 - for any amount

£1 - for any amount

50p - for any amount not exceeding £10

25p (Crown) - for any amount not exceeding £10

20p - for any amount not exceeding £10

10p - for any amount not exceeding £5

5p - for any amount not exceeding £5

2p - for any amount not exceeding 20p

1p - for any amount not exceeding 20p

Originally posted by AnAbsoluteCreation
reply to post by Blaine91555

 

Banks are private they can do what they want. The US Government has to abide by their OWN rules. There's a difference.

AAC

Oh, you poor naive fool. Ever hear of the constitution? It's almost wholly ignored today.

Originally posted by jam321
I think if I was the one taking the money I would have found humor in what the man was doing. It was obvious he wasn't pleased with the citation. I also would have gave him a break on the warrant and let the cops catch him another day. It wasn't like he was a serial killer or anything.

Ah, but he challenged authority. Such a slight can't be allowed to pass unpunished. I mean, how dare he express his discontent?!?!?!?!

It'll be total anarchy otherwise.

Originally posted by stikkinikki
My bank has an automatic coin counter machine in the lobby. How hard would it have been to have someone take the coins to the bank and have them counted. Anyway they should have taken the pennies for the scrap value at least.

Just what I was thinking. The copper in a penny (no pun intended) has been worth more than a cent for some time now. But then commodity prices are collapsing now....