Penny Wise

Read a cute ARTICLE article today about paying off a debt in pennies. Seems like a man in Utah was given an $82.00 fine for driving with a headlight out. As in his own little form of protest, he decided to pay the ticket all in pennies. 8,200 of them to be exact.

Court officials said they had the right to have him make a "more acceptable" form of payment and that they had the right to refuse his payment in pennies. The guy contended that the pennies were legal tender.

That left me wondering a little about that debate,so I did a little research on my own and I went to SNOPES to get the rundown to see if this had ever been addressed before.

Seems like the guy was right:

Title 31 (Money and Finance), Subtitle IV (Money), Chapter 51 (Coins and Currency), Subchapter I (Monetary System), Section 5103 (Legal Tender) of the United States Code 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. Foreign gold or silver coins are not legal tender for debts.



Snopes defines it in a little more detail, but it does make for a good read.