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

why do you need to spend your 3 cent piece?

Yeah, I agree that the more important question is why you want to spend it. As it is, I get a hard enough time when I spend Kennedy half dollars.

American coinage seems to be rare in the world, in that no issues have been demonetized. A Three Cent piece is legal tender, and likely always will be.

...at which point, on seeing that the cheapest possible listed price for a Three Cent piece is $18.00, the checkout person will assume that you (a) stole it but can't sell it, (b) are trying to get rid of a fake, or (c) are a weirdo with way more money than sense. I can't see them accepting it for 3 cents under any of those circumstances. It might work if the checkout person already knows that you're one of those "weird coin people", but that would take at least several months of careful cultivation before they'd be willing to accept your word on something as beyond-the-pale as a 3 cent coin.

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.

Here is a good way:
https://goccf.com/t/186347. At least someone else thought so!

I don't believe Sec. 102 of the Coin Act of 1965 has been repealed...

Well the mint said, when I called them to find the missing page in questions, that the 3-cent coin was demonetized. The ones the make denominations for currently are the only ones allowed to be used as money,...currently.

Ergo the ones the mint is authorized to make are the only coins the law allows to be money or something? Ergo the half-dime can't be used for 5 cents either.

Maybe someone else with that legal stuff (Sec. 102 of the Coin Act of 1965) knowledge can clarify? I am just going by what the mint says. Who else would need to be contact, Dept of Treasury?

In the event the 3-cent coin is still money to be spent as "legal tender", then the hypothetical still remains near impossible unless someone already knows what the coin is, then they would still take it for face value since it would be worth much more. Showing anyone a book to prove it IS a legal coin, would also show them the value of the coin as greater than face value, and almost ANYONE would take the coin for a profit and probably just throw a nickel into their drawer and not care.

again, why the old page from the mint is needed, or a new FAQ that tells people this stuff in laymens terms....

Maybe to satisfy the hypothetical you coin ty drop it into coin star and take the 10% loss in value and then spend the paper coin star gives you in the store? try a self-service lane that takes coins for payment and buy a pack of gum with it?

The big problem still remains the cashier. I have only found one that is trying to learn what all the coins are and brought her examples of old and new to see so she can spot what is and isn't at a glance when running the register. Most cashiers really just don't care and would probably think it a dime, which you would have to correct them for so you aren't being fraudulent, then when they notice it is 3 cent not 10 cent they would probably not take it at all. Or you could ALLOW them to think it a dime and just get the extra 7 cents without a word, since you handed it over and it is their responsibility to question, and then take your extra 7 cents like the guy with those gold painted V nickels...but I think that would be wrong, because you would only be getting 10 cents for a 3-cent piece! well probably the legal bit about getting 7 extra cents face value would play into the wrongness as well.

It is so hard to get people to know halves are still money even when they have the current year on them, I am curios how this thought exercise would play out if someone ties to put it to practice for a real-world result.

Now if you could somehow have a debt with a grocery store, then under "legal tender" they cannot refuse to take the 3-cent piece or any other coin. but a private business can do what they want and accept any payment or disallow any payment they want wherein it is not a debt. Debt, to my understanding being like something you owe after the fact, not groceries you pay for before you can use them. Maybe grab a drink and open it and drink some to create a debt, then use the coin in part to pay for it? get some chicken from the deli and eat one of the drumsticks on the way to the checkout? your kid breaks something on the shelf and you have to pay for it? you have to create a debt that would insure you MUST pay the store for something, before they MUST take your coinage of whatever denomination. grocery store is just a big monkey wrench into the trying to spend one, because if it was at a coin shop, it would b real easy to spend the thing, unless you found an honest coin shop that tells you it is worth more.

Bring it, and all other U.S. coinage to my store...I will gladly take it...for vace value.