“Canada legally limits how many coins you can use in a single purchase”
TRUE! A tender of payment in coins is legal tender only up to specific limits: $40 in toonies, $25 in loonies, $10 in dimes/quarters, $5 in nickels, and only $0.25 in pennies.
Most Canadians don't realize their loose change has legal limits. The Currency Act caps how many coins a vendor must accept for a single transaction. That jar of loonies you've been saving? You can only legally use $25 worth at once. The law also anticipates workarounds: Section 8(3) specifies that multiple purchases from the same vendor on the same day count as a single transaction for these limits, so purchases can't be split to get around the coin limits. Businesses can legally refuse a payment made mostly in coins beyond these limits.
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Where the story gets it wrong
Many people think this means stores can refuse coins entirely, but the law only limits the amount payable in coins of each denomination, not their use altogether. A store can still accept unlimited coins voluntarily.
People also often overlook that Section 8(3) prevents circumventing the coin limits by splitting a single purchase into multiple transactions with the same vendor on the same day.
Currency Act (R.S.C., 1985, c. C-52), Section 8(2): A tender of payment in coins is a legal tender for no more than the following amounts: (a) forty dollars if the denomination is two dollars or greater but does not exceed ten dollars; (b) twenty-five dollars if the denomination is one dollar; (c) ten dollars if the denomination is ten cents or greater but less than one dollar; (d) five dollars if the denomination is five cents; and (e) twenty-five cents if the denomination is one cent.
- Current status
- Actively Enforced
- Enacted
- January 1, 1985
- Penalty
- No penalty for attempting; vendors can legally refuse the payment