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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Dougmeister, post: 2596254, member: 56842&quot;]In researching the history of the Flying Eagle cent, I came across these entries:</p><p><br /></p><p>&quot;The new cent was issued in exchange for the worn Spanish colonial silver coin that had circulated in the U.S. until then, as well as for its larger predecessor. So many cents were issued that they choked commercial channels, especially as they were not legal tender and no one had to take them.&quot;</p><p><br /></p><p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_Eagle_cent" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_Eagle_cent" rel="nofollow">Wikipedia</a></p><p><br /></p><p>&quot;Like the Large Cent, the Small Cent was not legal tender, so it should have come as no surprise that it, too, would be rejected by bankers and merchants.&quot;</p><p><br /></p><p><a href="http://www.coinfacts.com/small_cents/cents_flying_eagle.html" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.coinfacts.com/small_cents/cents_flying_eagle.html" rel="nofollow">CoinFacts</a></p><p><br /></p><p>I understand (thanks to Google) that &quot;legal tender&quot; means &quot;coins or banknotes that <b>must</b> be accepted if offered in payment of a debt.&quot; (emphasis added)</p><p><br /></p><p>So... what does that mean, really? Banks did not *have* to accept them? Nobody had to accept them? </p><p><br /></p><p><b><i>What good were they then?</i></b>[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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