I do find it confusing that a limit can be placed on the amount of coins used for legal tender, especially considering the fee is state mandated.

My brain kept replacing 'pennies' with 'penises,' and continued to do so for at least through the first paragraph of the article. "Why is he paying them with penises? What kind? Is he Chinese?"

It's going to be a long Friday.

Ass pennies ?

"Did I do this on purpose? Yes, I did, to make a point," Seys said afterward.

To make the point that you're a churlish, vindictive asshole with no personal responsibility? Well done, point taken.

Ohhh one of these guys. And yet again a news agency is there to give him the attention he craves.

As usual, if you're an adult and your cunning plan sounds like something a ten-year-old would think was way awesome and totally rebellious and will blow people's minds, dude, it isn't and you shouldn't do it.

On the one hand, I understand where he comes from and the feeling of "sticking it to the man" any way possible.

On the other hand, "the man" is some poor clerk who only wants to get through the day.

So fark him, grow up and either fight the ticket, or pay the ticket. Paying like a douche doesn't help anyone.

As much as would like to see this guy win, it clearly states you can only pay $3 in pennies. The nickle option, offered by smarter Farkers, is a great idea. I'd probably try that.

Now, were I the clerk and some one walked in with a bag of nickels. I'd ask him very nicely to stack them in piles of 10 nickels each. It's for the security camera, I would explain. They have to get a record of you paying the full amount so they can't come back and say I pocketed it. The same way, I'd ask you to put both twenties, a ten and a five on the counter. Then, I would proceed to knock the piles over in a variety of different ways and then ask him to restack. All the time watching the line of people grow. "Sorry folks, he's paying in nickles. Gotta accept that legal tender."

From the US Treasury website:

I thought that United States currency was legal tender for all debts. Some businesses or governmental agencies say that they will only accept checks, money orders or credit cards as payment, and others will only accept currency notes in denominations of $20 or smaller. Isn't this illegal?

The pertinent portion of law that applies to your question is the Coinage Act of 1965, specifically Section 31 U.S.C. 5103, entitled "Legal tender," which states: "United States coins and currency (including Federal reserve notes and circulating notes of Federal reserve banks and national banks) are legal tender for all debts, public charges, taxes, and dues."

This statute means that all United States money as identified above are a valid and legal offer of payment for debts when tendered to a creditor. There is, however, no Federal statute mandating that a private business, a person or an organization must accept currency or coins as for payment for goods and/or services. Private businesses are free to develop their own policies on whether or not to accept cash unless there is a State law which says otherwise. For example, a bus line may prohibit payment of fares in pennies or dollar bills. In addition, movie theaters, convenience stores and gas stations may refuse to accept large denomination currency (usually notes above $20) as a matter of policy.

Few years back, I was closing my cellular kiosk on Christmas Eve (always fun to do). We closed at 6 & had the next day off with pay, but still. Anyway, around 4 this guy comes in looking to upgrade all 4 lines on his plan as Christmas presents for the family. I process the upgrade for him, explain the contract stuff, and ring up the phones...it comes to $300 or so in total. He hands me hist debit/credit card, I swipe it, it gets declined. Try it again, same thing. He tries writing a check instead, surprise surprise, it also gets declined. The guy is genuinely mortified, I'm groaning inside but trying to explain stuff like banks not clearing funds that have just been deposited etc., he says "Hang on, I'll be right back," and I'm left standing there with 4 activated cell phones and a half-done transaction clogging up the register.

At 5:45 he comes back in with (I shiat you no not) a bucket full of quarters and dollar coins. We (by which I mean, I) count that out along with some paper money he has on him, and he's still about $35 short. At this point it's already 30 minutes past closing & I just want to get home, so I chip in the rest of the money for him, we get his phones set up and I bid him goodnight. I finally got done rolling all the coins & doing the rest of the closing work at around 8:30. To make things even better, Christmas fell on a Saturday that year so the next work day was a Sunday (meaning banks were closed), so I had to do extra paperwork to explain why my petty cash was over the allotted amount because I couldn't deposit all those coins in the overnight drop. Then come in on my scheduled day off (Tuesday) to make the bank deposit.

tl;dr - I totally understand why they wouldn't accept 5,940 loose pennies.