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How To Spend A 3 Cent Piece At A Grocery Store?

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jbuck's Avatar
United States
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 Posted 01/13/2015  6:02 pm  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add jbuck to your friends list Get a Link to this Reply

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Forum can't do the website link correctly, so you have to copy and paste all 3 of those parts into one without spaces....
Sure it can. I fixed it for you. You are welcome. You needed to use [url][/url] tags, not [code][/code].

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 Posted 01/13/2015  6:49 pm  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add just carl to your friends list Get a Link to this Reply
Not sure why anyone would even want to try spending a coin that hasn't been seen for a long, long time. It's getting tuff enough to spend a half dollar, large dollar coin and no one even wants those baby sized dollars. By me it would be easier to spend a Peso for money.
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ProfLiz's Avatar
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 Posted 01/13/2015  8:18 pm  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add ProfLiz to your friends list Get a Link to this Reply
A few years ago, I served as a consultant to the Treasury, so learned a bit about the legal tender laws. Indeed, as philadelpian posted, all US coins and notes that ever were legal tender remain so. However, that does NOT mean that your grocery store has to accept them. A private merchant may accept or reject any form of payment, so long as they are consistent in their practices (i.e. not discriminatory). Furthermore, a merchant may reject any payment they cannot confirm as real. So the cashier has lots of legally sound excuses for passing on your three-cent coin.

However, if you were to take your three-cent to a bank, they are required by law to take it. So I recommend exchanging your three-cent for three shiny shield cents at your local bank. The only problem you'll have spending those at the grocery store is finding something cheap enough!
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ProfLiz's Avatar
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 Posted 01/13/2015  8:23 pm  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add ProfLiz to your friends list Get a Link to this Reply
P.S. to my last post: I think there is some confusion in shadz post about and the links he posted regarding "authorized" versus "monetized." The coin denominations that are currently authorized to be minted are the cent, nickel, dime, quarter, half dollar, and dollar. However, that does not mean the other denominations are no longer money (legal tender). They are. They just are no longer minted.

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Joe2007's Avatar
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 Posted 01/14/2015  12:37 am  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add Joe2007 to your friends list Get a Link to this Reply

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If you had an overwhelming need to get 3 cents for your minimum $18 coin by giving it to a random stranger, I'd recommend trying to deposit it in your bank.


I realize you probably already know this but it is quite possible to get a 3 cent nickel for a few dollars if it is very heavily worn or damaged. I've gotten a few in the $2 to $5 range in the "bargain" trays at a local coin shop.

For a few dollars loss it might be worth the entertainment value to try to spend it and see if you can convince them to accept it. Better yet get it on video and share the laughs with CCF!
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 Posted 01/14/2015  2:22 pm  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add Groszy to your friends list Get a Link to this Reply

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Most cashiers really just don't care and would probably think it a dime ... but I think that would be wrong, because you would only be getting 10 cents for a 3-cent piece!

My grandmother found an "Indian Head Dime" (her words) from a customer when she managed a store in the early-eighties. She tucked it back, and it turns out it was a Three Cent piece.

US banks accept non-legal tender (i.e., Canadian coins), and no one gets in trouble. People pass off tokens as coins all the time. Check out the roll hunting threads. Sure, a token vs a coin has a difference, but a coin being passed off as something of higher value? It's already happening, so I don't see the problem. If it's a nickel Three Cent piece it's the same size as a dime, and since no one looks at coins more than their color and size, it'll be accepted as a dime 100% of the time, by anyone.

As far as the US Mint website, and what it showed (before the redesign), notice how it said Dollars but only stated in parenthesis that it included Ike, Anthony, and the small dollars. It omitted all 90% silver dollars.

If you presented a Three Cent coin to a bank and announced it as such, they'd take it and send it to the mint for melting (or at least that's the law, if they didn't buy it out first) as it's non-current coinage. But it is still legal tender. The only denominations non-denominated were the Trade dollar, and the Hawaiian issues, but with the coinage act of 1965, they should be re-monetized. Further, I'm not sure if the Puerto Rican or Philippine issues were ever demonetized, but with the coinage act of 1965, they should be legal tender as well, since they all were coins of the United States. Thus, the only coinage/banknotes produced in the US that are not legal tender anymore are anything that was not a federal issue, i.e., state issued banknotes and private/territorial gold, etc.
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 Posted 01/14/2015  6:25 pm  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add shadz to your friends list Get a Link to this Reply

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However, that does not mean the other denominations are no longer money (legal tender). They are. They just are no longer minted.


Ok so how does that work, since this isn't taught in schools now, nor when I was going.. with the Trade dollars? Are they like silver certificates and still work, but get destroyed with prejudice when they are returned to the DoTreas place of origin?

And does that mean you can still spend a $5000 bill? Everyone I know, including banks, has said that a $1000 is no longer money. Maybe more, and better education needs to be done to common people, cashiers (most needed), and banks across the country if the $1000 bill is something a bank must take as a deposit.

Which is where my confusion comes from having talked to banks and the USMint CSRs.. "it isn't money anymore" is a pretty heavy phrase with a clear meaning...though the people saying it seem not to know what they are saying.
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smokeriderdon's Avatar
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 Posted 01/14/2015  8:19 pm  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add smokeriderdon to your friends list Get a Link to this Reply
The coin act has NOT been repealed. ALL money coined or printed by the US government is legal tender. It doesn't matter what some employee at the mint who likely wouldnt know Frankie let alone a Three Cent piece OR the laws governing said coins says. The law, in plain English says its legal tender. Simple.

Whether a cashier at the local Shoppers knows that... the odds are better that you will hit the lottery. And it really would be silly to do considering its actual value.
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BuckeyeCoinGuy's Avatar
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 Posted 01/14/2015  8:51 pm  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add BuckeyeCoinGuy to your friends list Get a Link to this Reply
I say if she is cute, try passing her the old Three Cent Nickel and see if you can get some conversation going.

Report back with results.
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philadelphian's Avatar
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 Posted 01/14/2015  10:19 pm  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add philadelphian to your friends list Get a Link to this Reply
Shadz-
The funny thing about Trade dollars is that they are actually the only US coin to be officially demonetized. When the Coin Act came in 1965, a bit of a numismatic buzz began: the consensus was that the letter of the Act effectively reversed the demonetization of the Trades, making them legal tender once again, after 89 years.
Edited by philadelphian
01/14/2015 10:21 pm
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 Posted 01/14/2015  10:27 pm  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add shadz to your friends list Get a Link to this Reply

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Act effectively reversed the demonetization of the Trades, making them legal tender once again.




Ergo, whye I wish the Mint website would just say, "what is money" then you could direct ANYONE there to see it, but it doesn't even have the 3-cent piece listed on it anymore such as the old one did, and even the old one didn't allude to those older and no longer "authorized" coins still being legal tender.

I mean it is hard enough when a cashier thinks a Guam quarter isn't US money because Guam isn't part of the US... the whole 3-cent piece becomes even MORE impossible to spend since it has nothing in common with ANY current coin when the Guam quarter has the save reverse as all the other State Quarters. (or is it only ATBs that washington is on the reverse?)
Edited by shadz
01/14/2015 10:31 pm
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jbuck's Avatar
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Conder101's Avatar
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 Posted 01/15/2015  1:11 pm  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add Conder101 to your friends list Get a Link to this Reply
The Trade dollar actually got its legal tender status back in 1933 through a congressional resolution, and was then codified by the coinage act of 1965.
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 Posted 01/15/2015  10:01 pm  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add shadz to your friends list Get a Link to this Reply

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Yes, Washington is on


obviously,.. but is he the reverse on the State Quarters or just the reverse on the ATB Quarters?
Edited by shadz
01/15/2015 10:02 pm
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jbuck's Avatar
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 Posted 01/16/2015  09:58 am  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add jbuck to your friends list Get a Link to this Reply

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but is he the reverse on the State Quarters or just the reverse on the ATB Quarters?
That may be a matter of debate or opinion. The Red Book and Wikipedia both say that Washington in the obverse of both Statehood/Territorial/DC and ATB Quarters. I treat Washington as the reverse by how I put them in my albums. Many others do the same, but the official standing does not change.
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