Warrant issued for man trying to pay ticket with pennies
 

wcbstv.com - Pay With Pennies ... Go To Jail???

Thought this was kind of funny....interested to see how it will hold up in court.


NUTLEY, N.J. (CBS) ― A Nutley man is putting in his two cents about what he calls a lot of non-cents over a traffic ticket.

He has been trying to pay his fine in pennies, but the town is demanding he change his way of paying.

"It's very easy to count. It goes in 10s. I mean, there's five rows of 10s," Frank Gilberti said.

Gilberti showed 112 rolls of pennies to CBS 2 HD. He said he thought he could use the coins to pay a traffic fine at the Bloomfield Municipal Court.

"I went to the bank and got $56 worth of rolled pennies and went down to the court house and they refused to take it. They had told me to bring cash. I was under the assumption this was cash."

Non-cents? Not really. Pennies are legal tender. In fact, at the courthouse CBS 2 HD found a sign saying cash is accepted.

That's why the Nutley resident said he fought back, calling the court and convincing workers there to take his pennies.

But the 22-year-old said there was a condition -- that he write his driver's license number on each roll.

"I simply asked them if I would have to do just this if I were handing in $56 bill. Would I have to write my driver's license number on each bill? They had no response," Gilberti said.

And even more shocking he said: "Then I found out there was a warrant out for my arrest."

The funeral home employee paid a $90 bail fee in order to stay out of jail. We went by to get a comment from the court.

But as soon as we got there we were told: "Turn the camera off."

"It's injustice. This is U.S. currency accepted all over the country [but] apparently not in Bloomfield, N.J.," Gilberti said.

Gilberti's got a court date Tuesday morning and he plans on taking all of these pennies with him, all 112 rolls.

CBS 2 HD also contacted the court system in Trenton, but no one there would comment.

Ha, sounds like a "creative" kind of person, unfortunately he's using it for the wrong things.

Isnt there a law that allows people to refuse more than 50 pennies?

I think there is a similar law in Canada that allows you to refuse more than 26 cents in pennies.

And here, I thought pennies were "legal tender for all debts, public and private." Shows what I know...

Well, the US Treasury says this:

The pertinent portion of law that applies to your question is the Coinage Act of 1965, specifically Section 31 U.S.C. 5103, entitled "Legal tender," which states: "United States coins and currency (including Federal reserve notes and circulating notes of Federal reserve banks and national banks) are legal tender for all debts, public charges, taxes, and dues." This statute means that all United States money as identified above are a valid and legal offer of payment for debts when tendered to a creditor. There is, however, no Federal statute mandating that a private business, a person or an organization must accept currency or coins as for payment for goods and/or services. Private businesses are free to develop their own policies on whether or not to accept cash unless there is a State law which says otherwise. For example, a bus line may prohibit payment of fares in pennies or dollar bills. In addition, movie theaters, convenience stores and gas stations may refuse to accept large denomination currency (usually notes above $20) as a matter of policy.

U.S. Treasury - FAQs: Legal Tender Status of currency

The Treasury does hint that state law can change things--perhaps there is an applicable state law that prohibits "protest payments" in pennies or small change.

This is retarded. If it's not fake, I don't possibly see how they can refuse it...

Many times I have paid toll booths in only 75 pennies. They try and deny the money then I tell them it is U.S. legal tender. They get a dirty look on the face and accept the money.

The Taco Bell drive through lets patrons pay with pennies....hmmmm Im hungry for a 7 layer burrito!

It seems like the paperwork required for the warrant would take more effort than just accepting the pennies, driving to the bank, and getting paper. Remember also, that this is not a private business.
Hopefully our resident lawyer, vagabond, can shed some light into whether this guy has a case or not? I'm really curious to see the outcome.

jsfboat: interesting note about tacobell....When I waited tables at a steakhouse... one of the kitchen managers previously attended cattle auctions for the company... he said that while everyone bid on good looking cows in whatever category... he said that tacobell bid on meat from milk-cows with ulcers and various degrees of sickness that no one wanted.... he asked if I knew what mechanically seperated chicken is.... and then said taco-bell's beef is the same... they just put the whole cow into a huge grinder and that's why you get the little pieces of "hard stuff" (i.e. cartilage) in your tacos!

Hopefully Skidmark will lend you some of his paper towels :D