Man cited for paying bill with 2,500 pennies

Settling a disputed bill with pennies or other small change is occasionally used as a form of protest. But is it smart or effective?

By Karen Datko Jun 6, 2011 2:30PM

What's one way to get your jollies while paying a disputed bill? Satisfy the debt with pennies -- lots of them.

Or maybe not. A Vernal, Utah, man faces a charge of disorderly conduct for paying a $25 medical bill with 2,500 pennies, according to police. "After asking if they accepted cash, (Jason) West dumped 2,500 pennies onto the counter and demanded that they count it," Vernal assistant police chief Keith Campbell told the Deseret News. "The pennies were strewn about the counter and the floor."

West left after staffers at the health clinic threatened to call the police, who later wrote a citation for disorderly conduct, police said. The maximum fine is $140.

Others have employed similar tactics without legal consequence.

The Long Island Press pointed out that a University of Colorado student paid a tuition bill with 14,000 $1 bills to protest the cost. Post continues after video about that payment.

Then there's the case of Thierry Cahez, a San Diego County man who after several tries was successful in paying a $6,500 credit card bill with 650,000 pennies in March. "Cahez said he decided to pay his credit card bill with pennies because he was upset with his bank over a refinance he couldn't get, and charges and fees on his card," an ABC station reported.
Last year, a University of Kansas student got the school's parking office to overturn its policy not to accept coins for payment of parking fines, after taking 1,000 pennies to pay a $10 fine.
In August, a Cle Elum, Wash., a businessman and City Council member tried unsuccessfully to pay a past-due personal property tax bill of $330 with pennies. Ron Spears said he was protesting the fact that the original $34 tax bill he hadn't paid had ballooned with penalties and interest.

It appears the citation in the Utah case was due to the mess that was made -- not the payment of the bill with very small change. However, merchants and others can decide NOT to accept pennies as payment, Snopes.com wrote while addressing this false claim: "U.S. law specifies that merchants do not have to accept more than 100 pennies as payment."

Pennies are legal tender, yes. But no law requires merchants to accept them. "Businesses are free to accept or reject pennies as they see fit," Snopes wrote.

Do you think paying with pennies or other small coins is an effective means of protest? Or are you just creating lots of additional work for bureaucrats and clerks who have to process the payment? (Suggestion: If you're compelled to do this, at least count and roll the coins first.)

We're siding with Adrian Chen at Gawker, who wrote about the tax bill incident: "In the end, Spears gave up the civil disobedience shtick and agreed to pay his property tax the normal big-boy way: With bills."

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