Can someone explain how this is possible? Doesn’t US currency have the phrase “This note is legal tender for all debts public and private” which I understood this to mean it should be accepted for settlement of financial transactions.
The reasoning I’ve heard behind this basically comes back to whether you have a choice: if my coffee shop says “no cash”, you can walk away just as you could if the sign says “formal dress required” or “no cell phones in use” – weird, perhaps, but it’s private property and both parties have the ability to walk away if they can’t agree on terms. Debts are different because they happen at a time remove, and the economy works a lot better if you don’t have something like a loan requiring repayment in notes from a particular bank which failed or, worse, was bought by your lender and is now playing games.