A Nutley man with a penchant for paying with pennies got an arrest warrant as a result in Bloomfield. From CBS-TV...
[Frank] Gilberti showed 112 rolls of pennies to CBS station WCBS-TV in New York City. 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."
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.
Actually there was a response -- Gilberti found out there was a warrant out for his arrest. He paid the $90 fee to stay out of jail; now he's got a court date Tuesday, where he plans to bring his pennies with him. Video here. The case has folks buzzing about pennies and whether the guy is a crank and whether it matters if the crank was paying with legal tender. What say you? And what have you purchased/paid for with rolled coin recently?
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Comments (25)
They should pay whom ever wrote this:
in pennies, and not many of them either.
Once again Nutley proves that it is has the most annoying inhabitants. How dare BPD ticket a Nutleyite??!!
Makes me ashamed that I was born there, and proud that I left.
They don't say what the warrant was for- probably for not paying his fine. The video is pathetic, sounds like a slow news day and perhaps he had a friend at the TV station.
"Whether that matter," good grammar from the Baristas when posting should matter very much. What say you, Liz?
Legal tender is legal tender. Yes, counting all the pennies is annoying but it's within his right to do so.
I'm with penny payer!
I recently was mailed a ticket from Bloomfield for running a toll - Their story was a police officer observed me running a toll.
My story was the guy who looked homeless and was hanging out in the middle of the toll lanes freaked me out so I threw my change and didn't wait for the signal to confirm payment.
Wish I had thought of the pennies. Or I wish the officer had chosen to wear something other then sweats when hanging out at the toll lanes.
I've given pennies to toll takers on the parkway. They sigh and groan but they have to take them.
I'm pretty sure towns are not "required" to take unreasonable amounts of change. Businesses either.
I remember a case in california where someone tried to pay their fines of thousands of dollars in pennies and were refused.
Seems reasonable in that case if were talking hundreds and hundreds of pounds of pennies and hours of counting.
Paying that big a fine with pennies is a pretty jerky thing to do.
Then again, a friend of mine paid for a $6,000.00 TV and entertainment center with $20 Best Buy gift cards he'd saved up over the course of five years and I plan on getting a PS3 the same way.
They probably wanted him to write his driver's license number on each roll so that they could ensure that each one was credited as payment to his account, much as one would write it on a check or money order, as well as have a "chain of custody" to ensure that the rolls that are counted (especially if any come up short, or filled, say, with Canadian pennies) are indeed the ones he paid with.
This guy should stop being such a jerk and stop taking out his frustrations on the people who work in the municipal court clerk's office. They were not driving his car, and they did not write the ticket. There are more effective ways for him to protest than being, dare I say it? A douchebag, as one of our endearing posters is fond of saying.
This guy is not so much a "crank as an @$$hole. Also, according to the US Dept of Treasury website (http://www.ustreas.gov/education/faq/currency/legal-tender.shtml), "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."
ROC: Where is it stated that local/federal agencies have the right to refuse certain denominations of currency? Where does "reasonable" fit into the matter of what combination of currency is used to pay a fee, as long as the math is correct to the total amount due? I say this is a slippery slope for the "value" of coins ... everyone hates them, so why keep issuing them and accepting them as currency? Doesn't this case just prove the value of a penny is $0.00?
I'd guess right here:
http://www.ustreas.gov/education/faq/currency/legal-tender.shtml#q1
(the link the hobo provided.)
If you read the link, it clearly does not support the case for refusing pennies.
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.
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.
This statement only addresses private sector policy to refuse certain currency, and mostly specific to large denominations for security purposes.
I'm no lawyer, but this guy should have a valid case that pennies be accepted to pay his fine, no matter how you "feel" about coins.
except that the question specifically also asked about government agencies.
I'd imagine payment terms would be up to each entity collecting such fees. You can't put a penny in a parking meter either. Neither could you pay likely pay for a ticket with a $1000 dollar bill.
p.s. MTA busses (a wholly government agency) won't take pennies either.
Today's Bloomfield Life reports that the court accepted the $56 worth of pennies as payment on 12/16.
We went over this about a year or so ago. No, they are not required to take the pennies as payment.
If no one will take pennies, stop making them and take them out of circulation. If they don't; take them.
Better yet, let's ditch all our coins and current and switch to the Euro. It's worth more!
This guy is not a genuine crank.
This is the kind of wacko who gives cranks a bad name.
Someone ought to kibosh him with a sock full of penny rolls.
Maybe he should try that trick in a restaurant a few times. Betcha he'd stop in a hurry.
Just received a recorded message from MPD concerning a missing 9 year old black hispanic girl. Last seen on Midland Ave wearing an orange shirt & jeans.
Sure, currency is currency. Try giving a fifty, or even a twenty to a harried bus driver. It is all legal tender, though the tender may be lacking in common sense.
Pay 'em in nickles
This story is simply a donkey with an ass on both ends. The fact that "Pennies" Gilberti specifically withdrew 112 rolls of coins from his bank to pay a ticket removes all sympathy for the guy. A worker charged with serving the public responding in kind is equally loathsome. This reminds me of the frequent complaint my spouse makes of movies I get in which not a single character is likeable.