We receive many inquiries about our popular commemorative silver coins (including £5, £20, £50 and £100 coins) and their legal tender status. Each issue is approved by Royal Proclamation in accordance with the requirements of the Coinage Act 1971. This means that these coins, like coins in general circulation, have the status of legal tender. He continued: “I refused to fill out the form because I had the legal means to pay. I recorded everything, and in the end, the police arrested me. The 54-year-old carpenter filled £60 with diesel at a Tesco store in Exeter, but a cashier refused to accept the piece and an official called police. Please note that although these coins are legal tender, they are not intended for general circulation, so banks and shops are unlikely to accept coins. The Mint cannot accept such coins outside the 14-day return period. “Admittedly, they were a little tarnished, but they are all legal tender and common documents.” However, staff at the Exeter Vale supermarket branch refused to accept the Royal Mint coin and called the police – as Devon Live reports. Brett Chamberlain attempted to pay for his petrol legal tender at a Tesco garage in July 2020. This second issue features an image of Buckingham Palace by Glyn Davies and Laura Clancy on the reverse, while the obverse features a portrait of Queen Elizabeth II by Jody Clark, making it the first face value coin to depict this portrait. [5] Under UK law, a person cannot be sued for a debt if they have attempted to enter into the transaction in question using legal tender.
Stores like Tesco and banks are not obliged to accept large coins. The drawings that appeared on the reverse of the 100-pound coin are summarized in the table below. Different parts of the UK have different rules for legal tender. The first mint of a new £100 commemorative coin was announced on 29 December 2014. [3] The coins contain 62.86 grams (2,021 troy ounces; 2,217 ounces) of fine silver with a diameter of 40.00 millimeters (1,575 inches). [4] The first mintage of this denomination was 50,000 coins. [3] Legal tender has a very narrow and technical meaning in the settlement of debts. This means that a debtor cannot be successfully sued for non-payment if he pays in legal tender in court. This does not mean that an ordinary transaction must take place in legal tender or only within the limits of the amount provided by law. Both parties are free to accept any form of payment, whether legal tender or otherwise, as they wish.
For example, in order to comply with the very strict rules for real legal tender, it is necessary to actually offer the exact amount due, as no changes can be requested. “Tesco came back and said they were accepting it at their petrol stations using `commemorative coins`, including the £100 denomination.” Brett Chamberlain, 54, a carpenter and father of four, had attempted to pay £60 worth of diesel at a Tesco Extra petrol station in Exeter in July 2020 with a silver coin commemorating London`s Trafalgar Square, of which only £45,000 were issued by the Royal Mint when it was released in 2016. The £100 coin is legal tender under the Currency Act 1971 – and Brett estimates he made a profit of around £2,000 by using the coins to pay for fuel. All Royal Mint coins would be considered such in the eyes of a court. “So I went to fill up with diesel, put my 100-pound coin on the counter, they refused to accept it.” Gas stations are forced to accept it, they have no legal recourse to refuse it and claim that I did not pay. “You couldn`t invent it. I tried to spend money like any other citizen. I always use the parts to buy my fuel. Tesco said in a statement: “Although commemorative coins are classified as legal tender, they are not considered legal tender in circulation – which must be accepted in businesses and banks. In England and Wales, the 5, 10, 20 and 50 pound notes are legal tender for the payment of any amount.
In Scotland and Northern Ireland, however, they are not legal tender. Only 45,000 commemorative coins have been minted and are classified as legal tender under the Currency Act of 1971. “They interrogated me,” Chamberlain told The Sun. “They wanted to sue me for using coins from the Royal Mint. In England and Wales, notes of £5, £10, £20 and £50 are legal tender to pay any amount. A collector of commemorative coins who was arrested after trying to pay for his fuel at a petrol station with a £100 coin and insisting it was legal tender was given £5,000 in compensation. Brett says something similar happened again on this occasion when the police showed up — but this time they confiscated the piece and sent it to RM, who confirmed it was genuine. This coin-related article is a heel. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. Brett Chamberlain put £60 worth of fuel in his car in a Tesco in Exeter, but his payment was refused by staff in July last year.
Mr Chamberlain, 54, tried to pay with a £100 coin, which was a 2016 special edition of Trafalgar Square. A man has won £5,000 in damages after being arrested for attempting to use a £100 coin. Not satisfied, Mr Chamberlain took legal action, complaining that, according to the Daily Mail, he had “not received an adequate apology or assurance that the incident would be deleted from the national police computer”. If a person in the UK has attempted to pay with legal tender, they cannot be sued for a debt owed. Brett Chamberlain tried to use the coin to pay his £4,900 petrol profit with a single coin is the kind of return every collector would dream of, but an amateur numismatist only got it after a battle with the law. Brett says that`s why he was so surprised at how police handled the situation when he was arrested in July 2020, even though he offered to pay with legal tender. “For this reason, retailers are not obliged to accept them as payment – this is at their discretion and our Tesco Exeter Vale store has decided not to accept commemorative coins.” Mr Chamberlain, a carpenter who lives in Tiverton, Devon, is a coin collector and told The Sun he planned to use the compensation he had been given to buy more. Brett Chamberlain was hit after being falsely arrested by Devon and Cornwall police for trying to pay for petrol with a £100 commemorative coin.
He said: “I`m not a coin collector, but it all started some time ago after I found a load of coins when detecting metals. In early August 2015, the Royal Mint announced that a second £100 coin would be minted. The new issue, like the previous one, would be limited to 50,000 fine silver coins of .999 each, weighing 62.86 grams (2.021 ozt) and having a diameter of 40.00 millimeters (1.575 inches). [5] Similarly, they don`t have to accept payments in 1p and 2p coins for something that costs more than 20 pence, although they can do so at their own discretion – and had endless reserves of patience. In practice, this means that although the British silver coins we produce in denominations of £5, £20, £50 and £100 are legal tender, they are designed as collector`s items or limited edition gifts and do not enter general circulation. Therefore, it is unlikely that UK shops and banks will accept them. The one hundred pound coin (£100) is a commemorative coin of pound sterling. The £100 coins, first issued by the Mint in 2015 and sold at face value, are legal tender but are intended to be collector`s items and not to circulate in general. [1] As of 1 November 2021, the silver content of each coin (in investment amounts) was approximately £35. [2] The coins are legal tender throughout the UK for the following amount: Tesco said it would not accept commemorative coins because it is not considered legal tender in circulation, according to the tabloid.
Brett said, “You can buy RM parts online for about 80 pounds, and so if I fill 100 pounds of fuel with the part, I`ll make a small profit with it.” They wanted to sue me for using coins from the Royal Mint.