Paid in Pennies...lots of them

I believe the law states that pennies, in quantities over ten dollars' worth or some random ceiling, are not legal tender unless the recipient chooses to accept them.
 
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GoneWestUtah said:
I believe the law states that pennies, in quantities over ten dollars' worth or some random ceiling, are not legal tender unless the recipient chooses to accept them.
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I hope you are right and the guy can not only sue for back pay but also harassment.
 
I am incorrect.

I checked it on Snopes and pennies are legal tender in any amount since 1965. Merchants can legally specify the form(s) of legal tender they will accept, for instance, no bills larger than $20, that kind of thing.
 
The joke would have ultimately been on his former employer if he'd happen to have found rare Wheat pennies in that stash.
 
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He could probably double his pay if he just sold the pennies as scrap copper, even though that is against the law lol.
 
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Currently, American pennies are actually made of copper-plated zinc. Copper is too expensive to make pure copper pennies just as our "silver" coins are no longer solid silver.
 
GoneWestUtah said:
He could probably double his pay if he just sold the pennies as scrap copper, even though that is against the law lol.
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When my Dad died, we had his coin collection professionally appraised and eventually sold it to a coin dealer. He had lots of old silver dimes, quarters, and half dollars. Each was individually appraised as to whether it was worth more as a collectable coin or for its silver content, and was priced/sold accordingly. I assumed the coins worth more for their silver content were being bought to be melted down. Is that against the law? No skin off my nose if the buyer violated federal law, but it never occurred to me he might have.
 
I think we've all melted a penny with either a torch or big Fresnel lens, I never thought about it being against the law but seem to recall that defacing currency is still on the books. Maybe it's a separate issue from coinage, who knows.
 
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""Despite rumors to the contrary, it is not illegal to melt U.S. silver coinage for its metal value. It was illegal from 1967 to 1969 to do so, during which time the government recalled as much silver coinage from circulation as it could. Since then, it is legal to melt silver coinage, as there is little, if any, in circulation.""

The history of our American money is full of interesting and sometimes silly bits of trivia. When they first made the walking liberty quarter it bas based on an old famous statue. It caused a big hulabaloo and had to be recalled and remande. the lady in question in the first run was indecently exposed and one of her breasts was bare!!!!

When the telegraph and electrical power became big the cost of copper went way up. the penny of that time was almost as large as a half dollar. They shrank it and issued as smaller coin. It was a flying eagle cent and they started pulling all of the large cents out of circulation. This did not go over real well and the Flying eagle was so disliked that they only made it for one year . It was replaced by the indian head cent that was better accepted.

Before the creation of the 5 cent nickle all American coins were copper, silver or gold. Instead of the nickle you had a silver half dime and a trime, 3 cent silver piece. Trimes were so thin that they easily bent.

LOL, I am a colector of both the coins and the tales that are about them.
 
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