Pay In Pennies?

I know it is out there in statute form...as I have read it before. There is specific federal law that states no one is REQUIRED to accept a bunch of coins to pay a debt. Pennies are legal tender, but it is the privaledge of the person owed as to whether they want to accept that form of payment or not.

Completely true.
I wonder what would happen if some nut paid a car parking, speeding ticket, etc. in traffic courts with pennies.
Lots of law enforcement people watching you after that.
I wonder what would happen if you paid state or federal taxes in pennies. Could be a great excuse for many audits.
If you paid a restaurant in pennies, I would strongly suggest not eating there again. Of course if you like spit in your food, continue doing that.
Not sure why but there are people out there that just look for problems.

Very true about the restaurants.

If you tried it for a ticket or taxes Id imagine you would be turned away and possible given a ticket for a public disturbance or something of that nature depending on how you reacted.

This is correct. What you have done in the eyes of the law is to make a LEGAL attempt to settle your obligation (debt). Now the person does not have to accept the coins, and his refusal does not negate your obligation (A lot of people mistakenly think that it does.). You do still have to pay the debt and the two of you need to settle on an agreeable tender. What the legal attempt to pay does do is protects you from late payment fees or penalties for non payment etc because you DID attempt to pay with a LEGAL form of payment. In other words they can't claim you are late in paying or have not paid because you DID try to make payment. I don't know if it would protect against a lien placement or not. It might.

Part of the confusion is because the term "legal tender" has a different meaning than it did in the early days of out country. Until sometime in the early to mid 20th century the term meant a tender which MUST be accepted by law. Then the meaning changed to a legally recognized tender that MAY be accepted.

Why not also add the proviso that the customer has to foot the bill if they pay via a credit card?

I seem to recall from college days that in the State of Illinois there is a state statue that does limit the number or amount of pennies a person can use to pay a debt. Whether this was a state statue or local ordinance I don't recall, but the limit that pizza parlors would take in a college town was $5 in pennies.

I know that in the State of Ohio you can't pay a traffic ticket in pennies. A friend of mine who was a Columbus cop says that someone tried to do just that and was turned away. He later came back into the police station wearing his revolvers. That he could do as he also went into the police stations cafeteria to eat his lunch. The particular watch commander said that he could do that, but was followed around by a few cops just to make sure that there was no trouble.

This story was related to me by a cop who was there. I've never seen anything in the press about this but this supposedly happened over 15 years ago.

the people in line behind you probably thought you a jerk, but I think its funny.

I wouldn't have said that politely thing. And I would have said something worse than pain in the bun too.
But since this is a family forum, your statement will be OK for now.
And as I mentioned before, why look for trouble? I know if I paid for anything at our local village hall in pennies, I'd probably have tickets on my cars every day. Village inspectors would be all over my house. Yes they would take them, but why look for problems.
Contrary to paying with pennies, I love the women in line at a store that pull out a check to pay for something. And nothing premade out, all must be entered now. And sometimes for only a few dollars.