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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Urban_Lawyer, post: 1526870, member: 36361&quot;]No, no, no!</p><p><br /></p><p>The explanation of legal tender in the United States above is not correct.&nbsp; The United States does not have contingencies or exceptions to the legal rule of legal tender like Germany and many other countries do.&nbsp; The basic rule is: &quot;If you have a valid debt, public or private, then coins and currency of the United States may be used to satisfy that debt and the creditor cannot refuse.&nbsp; If the creditor refuses, then the debt becomes legally unenforceable.&quot;</p><p><br /></p><p>What does this mean?</p><p><br /></p><p>If there is a (1) valid debt that is public or private (2) the coins and currency of the United States may be used to satisfy the debt (3) and if the creditor refuses, the debt becomes legally unenforceable.</p><p><br /></p><p>(1) -- The debt must be valid.&nbsp; If you go into a store and ask to purchase a bottle of soda there is no debt until the shop keeper agrees to sell to you.&nbsp; They can refuse your money legally because they are in essence refusing to sell you stuff and creating your debt.&nbsp; Contrast this with a restaurant.&nbsp; If the restaurant seats you, serves you, and gives you a bill then a debt has been created and they MUST accept legal tender.&nbsp; &quot;Public and private&quot; means all debts: tax debts, criminal fines, and private contracts.</p><p><br /></p><p>(2) -- Coins and currency of the United States.&nbsp; Any and all money issued by the United States from the civil war to the present is legal tender.&nbsp; You can spend a large size $1.00 legal tender note from 1862 to pay that restaurant bill just as lawfully as an Ike dollar.</p><p><br /></p><p>(3) -- Debt becomes unenforceable.&nbsp; This is where &quot;legal tender&quot; gets its teeth.&nbsp; Assume the restaurant refuses your $10.00 1907 gold certificate or $1.00 1887 Morgan silver dollar in payment of the bill.&nbsp; Then, AS A MATTER OF LAW, the restaurant cannot sue you in the future for payment.&nbsp; It is a complete and absolute defense to the lawsuit that the debtor / diner offered legal tender in full satisfaction of the debt and the creditor refused.&nbsp; This is a good incentive to take the darn $2.00 offered in payment.</p><p><br /></p><p>SOURCE:</p><p><br /></p><p>31 U.S.C. 5103 (2010).</p><p>Julliard v. Greenman, 110 U.S. 421 (1884).[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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