Payback By Payment Method, $88 In Pennies

It may be legal, but I'm not so sure I would blame it on the monetary system.

If the cops want to try to enforce federal law, I would tell them - with all due respect - it is outside of their jurisdiction. Want to arrest me for stealing the young man's car? Nope. I have a legal lien on it and that is a civil matter - once again - outside of their jurisdiction.

I'll take it to the other extreme. If I go to the hardware store and buy a $0.13 screw and try to pay with a $100 bill, I would be willing to bet most every hardware stores would refuse to take the $100. I could point, yell and scream all day about it being "legal tender for all debts public and private," but in the end I am walking out of that store screwless until I come back with something smaller.

So in the end, while it may be legal currency, they are walking out of the tow yard carless until they come back when you have something larger - at least if it were my tow yard.

In many states there is a limit that has been put on the number of coins that a business or government agency has to take.

A friend of mine who was an Ohio leo told the story of a person who tried to pay his parking tickets a city's police station with pennies and was turned down. So he came back a couple of hours later wearing his six gun on his hip. The poor woman was rightfully scared and pushed her panic button which brought every leo to her help with guns out.

They wanted him to raise his hands, which he didn't, but stayed right where he was until the captain told his men that the law (at least at the time of this action) allowed for open carry and that he was not breaking the law. The man then paid his bill and went to the public cafeteria within the police station to eat his lunch. Of course he was followed whereever he went by a couple of leo's.

If the story is true then there is more than one way to skin a cat as most of us fully know.

He sure did have some nerve. This story is supposed to have happened 15 years ago or so.

As for our moneytary system, leave it be.
Not only is it a proper system, but if you start a habit (and you will) of monkeying with it according to the economy, it will desensitize people to the invisible inflation tax that the politicians foist upon the public. Not that they are doing a good job of noticing now, but with coinage changes as a habit to distract the public is going to make it worse.

I say, make every coin currently produced worthless until the sheeple get off their lazy bottoms and start the next revolution.

I'd like to bring up another point.

I have read (but from no sources quite worth siting) that there is a difference between refusing a purchase and refusing payment of a bill.

They are two different transaction types. For example, trying to break a $100 bill at a gas station can be denied, because there is no law saying they have to sell to you. A store can deny sales for any reason as long as it's not because of race, gender, etc. etc.

On the other hand, if you are given a bill, this is now a debt. Notes and coins are all legal tender for all debts public and private.
However, I have read about court rulings that have gone both ways, it depends on the judge. Some of the cases that have gone in favor of the penny receiver have had the penny payer fined with promoting unnecessary hardship and labor because he pennies were not rolled. I have never read of a case where rolled pennies were refused legally.

It is his problem. Hes the one who got his car towed and wants it back. Its not the towing companies problem at some point theyd auction off the car and get their money so they couldnt care less. If you dont want to have to pay an 80 dollar fine dont risk parking in a tow away zone

Old thread on the subject.

Paying a fine in pennies seems to be a pretty standard form of protest in America. And it's completely legal, because unlike most other countries, America has no upper limits placed on the amount of coinage of each denomination that qualify for legal tender. The subject crops up on the forum every few months.


No-one has to accept any form of money in exchange for goods or services. But a payment of a debt (including a fine) is different, in this sense: if you offer to pay the debt in pennies and they refuse to accept it, they can't then later accuse you of failing to pay the debt or of making an overdue payment, because you did try to pay the debt, on time, in legal tender currency.

This is a rare occasion but I think SAP is wrong. I believe New York State limits the amount of change you can use to pay a fine to under $100. Every few months someone tries this idiocy and it never works.

Tow companies have been found to be unscrupulous in their dealings with the public many times. I would have paid them in cents also especially if I was unjustly towed.