Graham J wrote:
Legal tender is a means of payment that should not be refused by a creditor
to settle a debt. If you are buying a ticket, or paying for an item in a
shop there is normally no debt involved. On the other hand if, for example,
you are eating in a restaurant where you are billed at the end of your meal
then a debt is involved and legal tender should be accepted in settlement.

This explains why so few vending machines these days accept coppers to
pay for an item that you don't yet have. The vendor (in this case, a
machine operating on behalf of the vendor) does not have to serve
anyone. Many machines do not even show how much of any item they have in
stock, if any, before money is inserted. If they do dispense anything
before accepting payment, the machine designer is probably one screw
short of a box; and they would have to honour the legal tender rules,
and accept small change.

On the bright side, for those of you wishing to rid yourself of small
change, those Cadbury machines on the underground do accept 1p and 2p
coins, even if the confectionary they dispense costs considerably more
than if you were to buy the same nutritious and energy packed item at a
convenience store just outside the station. The Cadbury machines do not
seem to use an escrow device, and have been known to return change
different than the coins you insert.

--
Simon Hewison