£5 coin - 80th birthday Queen Elizabeth II

smid29

Sometimes when they do this, it's to try to suck you in to a bigger "collecting opportunity" - in other words, the UK 80th Birthday £5 coin is just one coin in a 20-coin set of 80th birthday coins from the 4 corners of the Commonwealth (or whatever!). My guess is that you'll get the hard sell for the rest of the collection along with your 'cheap' UK coin, and the rest of the set will most definitely cost a lot more than £5 each if they manage to 'persuade' you!

Alfie_E

melancholly wrote:

i was given a £5 coin for a present … would shops accept it as payment … ?

They might – it’s legal tender (the £5 coin is the modern replacement for the crown). However, there’s nothing to force a shop to accept payment in any form of cash.

asharon

I purchased 8 from the royal mint web site with free postage and packaging and had no problems spending them at shops.

koru

Alfie_E wrote:

However, there’s nothing to force a shop to accept payment in any form of cash.

Well, yes and no. If you buy on credit, you can insist on meeting your debt in legal tender coins (subject to certain limits eg, no more than 100 5p coins) and ultimately a court would consider that you have settled your liability if you pay the court in this fashion. But assuming you are paying immediately, the shop would be within its rights to refuse to sell to you if you wish to pay in 100 5p coins. (Which is interesting - I never thought they could refuse to accept a coin.)

I seem to remember a long time ago that someone paid a long-fought over fine by "writing a cheque" by carving the words in the bloody carcass of a large shark. Again, apparently this fulfilled the rules about being a legal "bill of exchange" so the payee had to accept it.

misterthrifty

If this coin is legal tender then retailers are obliged to accept them in payment (subject to specified limits for each denomination)

Cheques are different and can be written on anything (back of an envelope, dead shark, the flanks of a live cow etc) as long as they say the right words, I think they can be refused if they are too difficult or un-pleasant to handle.

Mr T

quoia

misterthrifty wrote:

If this coin is legal tender then retailers are obliged to accept them in payment (subject to specified limits for each denomination)

"LEGAL TENDER" actually has nothing to do with using this coin or any other in any quantity.

It has a rather narrow and technical meaning in the settlement of debts. It means that a debtor cannot successfully be sued for non-payment if he pays the amount into court in legal tender.

The term "legal tender" is a restriction on the number of coins that can be used to make a payment - above which the recipient can refuse to take them under them "NOT being legal tender"

It does not mean that any ordinary transaction has to take place in legal tender or only within the amount denominated by the legislation. Both parties are free to agree to accept any form of payment whether legal tender or otherwise according to their wishes.

However, in order to comply with the very strict rules governing an actual legal tender transaction it is necessary, for example, actually to offer the exact amount due because no change can be demanded.

Under such a transaction there is NO limit on any banknote or coins with a value above £1.

However 1p & 2p coins should not exceed a total of 20p
5p & 10p coins should not exceed £5
and 20p & 50p ( & any 25p "Crowns") no more than £10

There is an additional restriction on Bank of ENGLAND notes.
Obviously no problem in England and Wales, the £5, £10, £20 and £50 notes are legal tender for payment of any amount, but they are not legal tender in Scotland and Northern Ireland

koru

misterthrifty wrote:

If this coin is legal tender then retailers are obliged to accept them in payment (subject to specified limits for each denomination)

As Quoia says, you are wrong. See the Royal Mint webpage in Alfie E's post (http://www.royalmint.gov.uk/RoyalMint/web/site/Corporate/Corp_british_coinage/LegalTenderGuidelines.asp).

They are obliged to accept legal tender in settlement of a debt, but that doesn't mean they are obliged to sell to you or to create a debt.