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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;GDJMSP, post: 479890, member: 112&quot;]There is a very good reason for the leagal tender system. Just think for a moment what the world had before the legal tender system existed. And I say world because the USA really isn&#039;t old enough. But we did have the issue for a bit in the early days.</p><p><br /></p><p>Legal tender is nothing but a descriptive term. It is used to describe what forms of money are acceptable in this country. For example, foriegn coins were legal tender here in the US until 1857. That&#039;s 70 years after the Constitution. But it was necessary, there simply was not enough of our own currency to go around so we had to use the currency of other countries. But they did not accept just any currency, they only accepted the currency of a few countries - they declared it legal tender.</p><p><br /></p><p>Now if they had not done this, we would have had, and may well still be doing it, a system where this country&#039;s coins were worth this much and that country&#039;s coins were worth that much. It is the system that was in use since the beginning of coins.</p><p><br /></p><p>Now in order to do away with that rediculous and cumbersome system the govt. came up with the legal tender concept. The US dollar and the Spanish colonial Pillar dollars were both worth the same amount (there were others too). Some other coins that had a lesser silver fineness or were of a smaller weight were not legal tender.</p><p><br /></p><p>It&#039;s the same thing now, only now we only accept our own currency as legal tender in this country. That&#039;s really all legal tender means - that we don&#039;t accept the currency of other nations.</p><p><br /></p><p>You ever see a sign at a 7-11 saying No Bills Over $20. Well it&#039;s the same thing - they can refuse to accept any bill larger than a $20. And you don&#039;t blink an eye or get mad, none of us do - you just accept it. Or an apartment complex - just try paying your rent in cash, they won&#039;t accept it. And we accept that too. </p><p><br /></p><p>Of course both of these instances have good reasons for not accepting large bills or cash - because they don&#039;t want to get robbed. Well, other business have their own reasons. Handling cash cost them money, somebody has to take it to the bank, they could be robbed if cash were on the premises. </p><p><br /></p><p>For all of these reasons and many more, any business has the right to say what they will or will not accpet as payment. Legal tender has nothing to do with it. But most people mistakenly believe it does.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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