Man attempts to pay fine in 5c pieces

Australian coin · September 15, 2013, 08:07:35 PM

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/national/2013/09/15/15/49/man-attempts-to-pay-fince-in-5-cent-pieces

runway · September 15, 2013, 08:15:17 PM

Unreal...

Goldseeker · September 15, 2013, 08:29:28 PM

That is not unusual. I went to the bank to secure a $200 gold coin and on the way, went into a major services place to pay my water bill. When I went to pay with the gold coin, the cashier refused stating "that the coin was not legal currency". I tried to discuss it with her but in the end, paid by Visa.

What a lot of hog wash. The gent paying the fine overstepped his mark by a long shot.

There is a Federal reserve bank law which determines the legal amount of coin that must be accepted and anything over that can be refused UNLESS prior arrangements have been made.

r9453 · September 15, 2013, 08:32:35 PM

Oh dear, Channel 9, a current affair, expose. Noodle for the win!

triplewitch · September 15, 2013, 08:38:24 PM

In the United States, legal tender or not, a merchant is not required to accept payment in a form unacceptable to him. Many places will not take a bill over $20, for example.

r9453 · September 15, 2013, 08:50:16 PM

Maybe the French are the USA #1 ally, laissez faire.

Fulvio · September 15, 2013, 09:01:29 PM

Quote from: 'r9453' pid='28324' dateline='1379242955'Oh dear, Channel 9, a current affair, expose. Noodle for the win!

Yeah, well, don't mention channel 9 to me. I've seen what a pack of prix they are, first hand. Not that the other commercial media are any better, but they're definitely the worst of a bad bunch.

QuoteUnder Australian law, 5c coins can legally be refused for transactions greater than $5.

So, all he had to do was pay in instalments. $5 at a time, 12 times.

And remember the BS story about Samsung paying Apple their billion dollars in truckloads of nickels? Sounded great, until someone did the math.... there aren't that many in circulation. :angel:

runway · September 15, 2013, 09:32:20 PM

No I never heard about Samsung and Apple what happened?

Sapyx · September 15, 2013, 10:27:12 PM

Here's the Samsung-Apple story busted on snopes.com.

As for this story, the footnote at the bottom of the article is correct: Attempting to pay a debt bigger than $5 in 5¢ coins is not a legal tender in Australia. That law was put in place specifically to stop the "pay your fines in 1 cent coins" nitwits. That doesn't mean the Council teller was forced to reject them, just that she had the right to tell him to go away and obtain a more reasonable form of money to pay the debt.

Fulvio · September 15, 2013, 11:29:55 PM

Quote from: 'Sapyx' pid='28344' dateline='1379249832'specifically to stop the "pay your fines in 1 cent coins" nitwits.

I also heard many stories of creative cheque-writing back when I was working for the ATO. Apparently someone paid his taxes with a cheque written on a cow, and another one on a dozen eggs, to quote two I was told about first-hand. I can just picture the logistics of storing and cashing them..

Cooper S · September 16, 2013, 08:30:51 PM

I'm actually not surprised with this stupidity happened all the time I actually watched it a few days ago he just walks up and dumps it on the table and tips it out

triplewitch · September 18, 2013, 01:10:05 PM

This was posted on the RAM Facebook page:
http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2013/09/17/coins-what-you-can-and-can%E2%80%99t-do
Foreign exchange booths will accept coins in Australia?

Fulvio · September 18, 2013, 05:42:16 PM

Who IS this goose, apart from someone who doesn't know the difference between drawing bottoms and a chest of drawers? Forex booth indeed.. LOL.. What's the fee nowadays? Last time I went to Thomas Cook it cost me $4-something on top of the usurious exchange rate. I'll rush down there right away with these two NZ 10¢... NOT!

trout · September 18, 2013, 05:51:21 PM

If I was on the counter that day, I would have noodled them for 1972 coins.
Then I would of spent another hour counting them out an putting them in neat piles while the smart alic was waiting.
After getting the count correct I would have said "Unfortunately Sir there is more than $5 in 5 cent pieces here and legally I am NOT obliged to accept this as payment".
I would have then issued another fine for late payment, Including the time I had to spend counting his change :diablo:

Sapyx · September 18, 2013, 05:56:31 PM

I don't think there's a foreign exchange booth on the planet that accepts coins - even valuable coins like 1 and 2 euros or British 1 and 2 pounds. In every country I've heard of, they only take notes. It's hard enough storing quantities of the commonly exchangeable currencies; they'd need a booth like the TARDIS to hold coins as well.

If you want face value for foreign coin, you'll have to go there yourself, or find someone else who's going there and sell them to them. Otherwise, coin dealers are your only option.