http://www.japanprobe.com/?p=7680 Seems the Japanese have newspapers that explain why you can and cannot pay with alot of coins.
Have not read all the comments on that page, but as explained somewhere over there, we have similar regulations in Europe. In the UK, the pound coins (£1, £2 and the rare £5) are unlimited legal tender. With pennies it depends - 1p and 2p up to an amount of 20p; 5p and 10p up to £5; 20p and 50p up to £10. (At least that applied a few years ago; correct me if I'm wrong.) In the euro area there is no difference between denominations; the law simply says that nobody is obliged to accept more than 50 coins per payment. Of course those limits apply to legal tender, thus paying debt; a merchant may well put a sign up that using more than, say, 37 coins is not acceptable. Christian
In the USA the courts go back and forth on rulings where people pay in cents etc. There seems to be no consistent policy regarding them. In contrast, when I was in Ukraine last month, it was difficult to get change from cashiers in stores etc, they expected you were going to give them your coins etc. I came back with a whole bag of change that I will auction off for my fundraising at some point - but it was no small task to accomplish hoarding coins in Ukraine.
It's probably to avoid things like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPyMJCmj86k http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2sJZBaxBsk http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLpOjXOMFkg http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Otv6mAqJTE
It depends on whom you are dealing with. With the machines used in train stations here in Australia, you can't put in any more than 10 coins in a single transaction if I remember right. Some shop keepers are more than happy to get coins as they face trouble giving out changes. That said, I remember changing a bomb lot of coins in Japan in a store a while ago, explaining that I was about to leave the country and wasn't keen on having too much coins. (probably at least 30+ coins of the smaller denomination easily).
I never spent a tonne of money in Japan when I was there, but they do have larger denomination coins that are 500 Yen, and worth now more than $5. I kept the one I got in change as a souvenir. So much stuff is available for sale in vending machines all over the place there, so you spend coins easily getting about Tokyo.
I hadn't run across this law, probably because I generally "hoard" coins, and don't use them to pay for things. Of course I've never had any trouble depositing coins in my bank account. On my trip last spring I deposited close to $1,000 worth of yen coins that I had accumulated, inspected, and found unworthy of being in my collection.
