legal tender Pubblico Deposited
Anything that may be legally offered in payment of a debt or other financial obligation. The creditor or other party to whom the sum is payable must them accept it rather than demanding any other form of payment. The U.S. Constitution debars any state from making anything but gold and silver legal tender; which led to generations of controversy over whether cents or nickel coins could qualify, and (after the Civil War) reams of Supreme Court opinions and reversals over whether federal paper currency could qualify. (Framers of the Constitution intended to forbid paper currency of any king, under the name "bills of credit.") Half cents and large cents were never legal tender; trade dollars lost their legal-tender status in 1876; but the Coinage Act of July 23, 1965 has made all U.S. coins, current or obsolete, of all denominations and metals, into legal tender. Compare NCLT.
- Breen Encyclopedia