If you’re looking for a swanky, sustainably-sourced salad for lunch… don’t bother bringing your wallet. Sweetgreen doesn’t want your money, at least not the paper kind; it prefers you pay digitally. Period. [More]
legal tender
Local Official Thinks It’s Uncool To Pay $25 Parking Ticket In Pennies, But Affirms Man’s Right To Do So
By 8.13.15
A Pennsylvania man who was rebuffed when he tried to pay a $25 parking ticket he owed to his borough entirely in pennies should’ve been able to use those coins, a local official said, but really, it was kind of rude for him to do so. [More]
Court Rules Airline Doesn’t Need To Accept Cash For In-Flight Purchases
By 2.25.13
There’s a widely held belief that because dollar bills are legal tender that all cash must be accepted by any business for any purchase. This simply isn’t true, but try telling that to the man who sued Continental Airlines for refusing to let him buy $8 worth of stuff with cash during a flight. [More]
Customer Says Grocery Stores Wouldn't Accept $32 In Quarters
By 11.2.11
Any number of stores have policies against accepting cash in denominations higher than $20 or $50 bills, but what about loose change? A woman in Portland (the one on the left side of the country) says her local grocery stores refused to let her use quarters to pay for $32 in groceries. [More]
Utah Considers Making Gold And Silver Legal Tender
By 3.25.11
Utah’s state house took a step toward allowing gold and silver to be accepted as cash, passing a bill that would recognize government-issued gold and silver coins for not only their face value, but the value given to the items by collectors. If the bill passes, the state would study the idea of establishing an alternative form of currency backed by silver and gold. [More]
Government Program Replaces Mutilated Cash
By 8.11.10
Just because your dog mistakes a $100 bill for a chew toy, it doesn’t mean you’re out the cash. You can just take what’s left of your mangled paper and send it to the U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing’s Mutilated Currency Division, which will issue you a check for the amount you otherwise would have lost. [More]
Homegrown Currencies Are Popular Right Now, But Do They Work?
By 7.20.10
Remember the Downtown Dollars that Ardmore, PA sold to its citizens this year? Sara Lepro at American Banker looked at that and other “homegrown currency” experiments happening across the country, which are intended to stimulate the local economy and take advantage of “a growing ‘localism’ movement.” [More]
8800 Penny Prank Takes Paying In Cash To Extremes
By 8.4.09
What do you do with your pennies? Consumer Reports suggests saving them and depositing them in your bank, or exchanging them for a full-value gift certificate in a Coinstar machine. But Jordan had a much better idea. He tried to use them to pay the impound fee after his car was towed. Video inside. Remember: it’s not a real prank until the cops show up.
No, You Should Not Pay Your $206 Speeding Ticket With Urine-Soaked Coins
By 3.29.09
47-year-old Washington resident Michael Lynch tried and failed to pay a $206 speeding ticket with a plastic bag filled with coins and urine. Surprisingly, his special payment for doing 54 mph in a 35 mph construction zone didn’t violate any laws…
Michael's: "It's Store Policy Not To Accept Change"
By 9.27.08
Hayden wanted to buy a $4 wood plaque for his mother as part of a last-minute birthday gift, but Michael’s wouldn’t accept 16 quarters as payment. “It’s store policy not to accept change,” a cashier explained, forcing an embarrassed Hayden to borrow a few bucks from his younger sister.
Paying Your Verizon Bill With Cash? That'll Be $3.99 Extra
By 6.7.08
Employees at the Verizon store in Millington, Tennessee told reader Josh it would cost an extra $3.99 to pay his bill with cash. According to the employees, the charge was to offset the cost of “new money software.”
This Bath & Body Works Doesn't Accept Cash
By 4.3.08
A.A. sent us these photos, and writes,
That’s the sign I saw at the Bath & Body Works store in a Tanger Outlet Mall in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. I didn’t go inside to find out if my legal tender was no good there or what, but I’m a fan of the site and thought y’all would get a kick out of the pics.
The U.S. Treasury says that’s fine, stores don’t have to accept cash. We’re just worried the people in Pigeon Forge know something about the U.S. dollar that we don’t.
