Posted on 03/21/2020 4:11:29 AM PDT by SkyPilot
Granted, exceptions have been made over tenders made with absurd currencies -- wheelbarrows full of pennies, for example, or hundred-dollar bills to discharge a $2 debt, etc.. Airlines routinely insist that no cash transactions are allowed for purchases of snacks or drinks. Those are exceptions, not the rule.
Look on a five-dollar bill; it explicitly states that the note is legal tender for all debts public and private.
But that doesn’t mean that if payment is refused because of the type of payment offered that the debt is canceled.
At least that's what I was taught in Business Law many moons ago. I'm not a lawyer, but there's some logic in it. After all, if I owe you money and offer to pay you, but you refuse to take the money, how can I force you? But you don't have the option of keeping me forever in your debt by simply refusing to take my repayment.
Thank you for your effort but I’m still not totally convinced. In any event, the legal aspect is probably controlled by each state, not the federal government. It might vary, state by state.
Since currency is a federal function, I doubt its usage is governed at the state level. However, much of currency governance is regulatory, not statutory, so it’s hard to say.
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