Be Excellent To Each Other

I went to buy a jar of coffee earlier and having a shit load of change (in 1, 2 and 5 pence pieces) I attempted to pay with this. I was told be the "assistant" (Ha!) that she wasn't allowed to take change as it was the law (insert waffle). If it was bagged she could, but not if it was loose. And neither would banks. So there!

I told her I was attempting to pay with legal tender and that she was perfectly in her rights to refuse to sell me the coffee, but I didn't think any law prohibited the use of legal tender for the trade of goods - company policy might, but the law didn't. Anyway, she wasn't in the mood for an argument (boo!) so she eventually did take the money and I got my coffee.

Is there actually any law that says that a shop can't take (lots of) coinage in payment for goods?

There is indeed. Coinage ceases to be legal tender over a certain amount.

http://www.royalmint.com/Corporate/poli ... lines.aspx

There's a thing about "legal tender" and what certain coins and notes could be used as legal tender for, which we had an argument about a while ago, but "legal tender" has a specific meaning of settling debts in court, or something.

So no, I don't think so.

Yeah but it doesn't mean that there's a law which says that people cannot accept it which was what End of an Era asked. On that page it says:
"Both parties are free to agree to accept any form of payment whether legal tender or otherwise according to their wishes."

I once tried to pay for a hotel that had no facility for taking cash, which was all I had. In the end I put the money on their reception desk and left, only to be marched back in by the police, who had just arrived. Once they saw that I had the means to pay, however, they were on my side, and the hotel relented.

Shop folks are legally entitled to refuse a large amount of small change if they wish to, and have been for at least five years, probably a lot longer. I forget the precise amounts, but the above sounds about right.

They're not obligated to refuse, mind. They merely can if they don't have the time to be dicking around with piles of coppers that have probably been wallowing in someone's sweaty pocket for years.

And even if they weren't, pretty much all shops reserve the right to refuse service to anyone for any reason. Something like 'paid with coins' isn't going to fall foul of anti-discrimination laws either, so there's not much to be done.

Ah, true. But:



is incorrect. It wasn't legal tender, but she could indeed still have accepted it.

I'd imagine the "assistant" didn't get to make the rules, though.

Have you even *read* the page you linked to? "Legal tender" has a very specific meaning.

I know it does, and I read that. What I'm not convinced of is that it has any other meaning outside that context, other than some accepted usage which has no basis in fact.

Jolly good. Carry on then.

I was told this when I was getting till training as a Saturday assistant in Freeman Hardy Willis, so... pre-95. '94?

>20p in 1s and 2s wasn't legal tender, something like £2 in 10s and 20s, and a fiver in 50s, so if someone tried paying with stupid quantities we were allowed to decline the sale. If it wasn't busy, the till wasn't too full, they weren't completely taking the piss and we could be arsed, we'd take it anyway because the coins are still money, obviously, and would be going to the bank later on.

Being given the job of running a day's takings up the Wrexham high street to the bank was fun. By which I mean really not.

A shop isn't obliged to sell you anything. The legal tender argument therefore becomes a red herring.

That, and, the phrase "legal tender" is only meangingful when discussing a person paying a debt to a court. Outside that context it's meaningless. Shops cannot reject or accept coinage based on it being legal tender because the law doesn't define what that means for a shop. They can, as Riles says, simply refuse to accept any money they want to.

That's the kind of rules we used and it was described to me as legal tender okay fine!

Here's one. Can I legally refuse to be given a Bank of Jockland tenner in change? I hate getting those.

In practice, it doesn't stop people acting like right idiots when they march up with three or four bags of coppers and demand to pay for their "ten faaaaags" and you quite rightly point out that you can't be arsed counting out their change.

Go to a bank.

Or go to sainsburys and use one of the coinstar machines. The percentage they cream off the top is well worth not having to bother with the effort of counting, bagging, then queueing at the bank.

Am I right in thinking they just print a voucher which then has to be used inside the Sainsbury's?

If so, double burn.

They print a voucher that you can reclaim as cash at the counter.

Yes, but you can just ask for cash at the checkout, and they'll happily give it.

The Tesco near me also has one of those machines, charging 7%.

Although there is also a 'donate to charity' button, which a mate hit by mistake after loading it with £60 of change...

There was a great hack on the US ones. You requested an iTunes voucher for the balance, then reached around the back of the machine and pulled the network wire out. The iTunes voucher had nothing skimmed off the top (so deposit £30 and you get £30 of credit -- they make their margin from the iTunes affiliate fees), but with no network connection the machine rolled over into an error state. Which was to print a cash voucher for the outsanding balance. Which was £30, without any deductions.

Never seen a UK one that did iTunes vouchers to try it on.

We cashed in over ten quid of coppers in such a machine and they took 1.4% of it as payment. So we lost about 14p for the hassle. ROBBERY! *smashes machines to bits* FACISTS! *stamps on shards of metal* JIM DAVIDSON!

Really? Fuck me. Where was that?

Nah, I bet there was a £2 coin in there by mistake.

So you pumped it full of change to get a £9.86 note?

I heard that you can use all your change to pay on one of those self service till things in Tesco. Have no idea if it works but obviously there would be no commission.

Sainsbury's I think. I sent the missus out to do it. I am gallant.

Might be tempted to take my massive Vimto lolly jar to Sainsbury's and dump all the coins into the Coinstar then. I reckon there's gotta be at least £250 in there.

We keep our spare coppers in a celtic knotwork decorated skull. Called George.

Yes. They are not legal tender in England (despite what I have seen some screaming Scottish folk insist when trying to pay with one at a small kisk and get refused...) See here:



Scottish Banknotes aren't even legal tender in Scotland, as it happens.

So legal tender isn't legal tender unless I'm paying off a debt and any shop can tell me to GTFO if I try paying for anything in coins.

*sigh*

If there ever comes a day I understand financial matters, take it as the first sign of the apocalypse. (Kinda worrying really, since I right a lot of financial software )

I pulled £150 out of a fruit machine on the M1, then went to B&Q on the way home and stuck 70 nuggets into the self serve till to pay for some stuff, and another 35 in sainsbury. Works.

Shops can refuse to serve you whatever you are paying with, so the denomination which you choose to pay in isn't really the issue.

I once paid for £20 of pizza in coppers because the delivery place was trying to overcharge me when I wanted to treat my little brothers

The shop can tell you to GTFO for nearly anything.
For instance, if you're shouting a lot and causing a scene because an assistant won't take your coins.

Or because you have shit yourself.

Glamourous job, Russ?

*rubs chin* This sounds like the voice of experience.

Or because you're ginger. Or it's a Wednesday*. Or you're too pretty.


*Look at the cows, Madeline!

I'm sure Perkies sent me a DVD series called 'Legal Tender'.

I think you'll find it was "Bareback Rayleigh Choppers".

@ both the Doc and Dimrill.

I manage convenience stores for a living. Currently working in Hull, which as a moral and tasteful representation of society leaves a lot to be desired.

In four months I have been robbed so many times my bank balance hurts, had bottles thrown at me from the crates of beer that people had just robbed, and been assaulted.

People shitting themselves is almost (but not quite) a welcome distraction.

Watching back on the cameras it was like a Great Escape style shaking it out down the trouser leg affair.

*Starts to imagine Russ as the poor sod working in the store at Innsmouth*

Not if they want to stay in business they can't

What if the shop is just a front for a mafia operation?

I paid for the repair to my Mazda (~£7,500) in £10 notes, but only because I'd worked out I wouldn't be able to pick up that many £1 coins.
The chap looked at me like I'd shot his dog.

Mafia folk are much maligned, a quick word with the Don and problem solved. It's these officious, bureaucratic mega-corporations I can't stand

People who refuse scottish money in change are the scum of the earth, and deserve to be stabbed through each eye with a blunted cricket bat.

The only person worse is a shop assistant that refuses to take scottish money.

Fuck off. Why should I take a note that there's a good chance will get refused as soon as I go to spend it?