5 cent coins - legal tender?

[rajagainstthemachine]

Is there any perceived bias towards accepting 5 cent coins? I have collected a few coins over time and yesterday I went to buy a newspaper and the shop guy said he wont take 20 5cent coins.. Later I tried a 7/11 store where a lady made a face and took 50cents worth. Are 5 cents evil?
Does it bring bad business? If the coins are legal tender they should be accepted by all shops.

[ecureilx]

Is there any perceived bias towards accepting 5 cent coins? I have collected a few coins over time and yesterday I went to buy a newspaper and the shop guy said he wont take 20 5cent coins.. Later I tried a 7/11 store where a lady made a face and took 50cents worth. Are 5 cents evil?
Does it bring bad business? If the coins are legal tender they should be accepted by all shops.

There's a limit as to how many small coins you may use, per transaction... to ensure people don't pay by bag loads of coins I guess ...

It is legal tender but how many items end of 5 cents ?

I can only remember BK and Macdo or KFC stinking to 5 cents, 95 cents etc.

If you have too many just do a coin deposit at POSB.

[sundaymorningstaple]

http://www.mas.gov.sg/news-and-publicat ... usage.aspx

Answer by Mr Lawrence Wong, Minister for Culture, Community and Youth on behalf of Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister in Charge of MAS:

1 Coins issued by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) are legal tender in Singapore for the payment of goods or services, up to the limits set out in the Currency Act. As specified in the Act, the legal tender limit for coins of denomination below 50-cents is two dollars. This means that a vendor is obliged to accept any number of coins of denomination below 50-cents for payment up to two dollars. For 50-cent coins, the limit is 10 dollars. There are no limits for payment by one-dollar coins.

2 Under the Act, if a vendor wishes to set a lower limit on the quantity of coins he will accept in a transaction, he must provide a written notice of this to his customers. This may, for example, be by way of displaying a written notice. Otherwise, all denominations of the coins tendered by a customer as payment up to the legal limits must be accepted.

3 Banks typically charge a deposit or administrative fee for coin deposits because they incur costs in handling coins. This includes sorting, authenticating, packing, and ensuring secure transportation of the coins. The setting of fees and charges for banking services are commercial decisions by the banks. But MAS expects banks to disclose the fees for their services so that consumers can make informed decisions.

[rajagainstthemachine]

thanks SMS for clarifying, so apparently 2$ is the limit and I'm fine with that, in both my cases paying for a 1$ newspaper was below that limit and they should have accepted it.
I think the folks at fair price are a bit more open to handing them 5cents as they always seem to want change , so might shift my coin exchange operationa there.

[RedRidingHood]

Periodically I will bring my boxes of coins ($1, 0.50, 0.20 etc) to the hawkers in my neighbourhood and exchange them for notes. They love it as this means one less trip to the bank, and less charges. In fact, most hawkers donate their 5 cent coins to charity (the only one who will take them really - banks waive charges for them)

[RedRidingHood]

The admin charges for 5 cents coin deposits way exceed the total value of any bag of 5 cent coins as banks' charges are per coin instead of per total value.

[L.Jaff]

They are legal tender. Perhaps they might think you're being funny by giving them a big bunch of coins. The trick is to unload them afew at a time and not in one go ;p

[sundaymorningstaple]

http://forum.singaporeexpats.com/ftopic ... ml?t=47209

or the easier way......

http://forum.singaporeexpats.com/viewto ... 87#p711087

[Wd40]

Hehe, Raj, I used to do this during my good old days when I had a lot of time. Now I have no time to even bother about things like these.

I really understand the value of the phrase "Time is money". There was a time when I was so free that I used to get so bored and do crazy things to save money. Now I am so busy in my new job, I have become normal like everyone else, who used to ridicule me before

[Strong Eagle]

Singpost still gives out pennies in change for stamp purchases... I wonder if they will take larger numbers of coins.

[ecureilx]

Singpost still gives out pennies in change for stamp purchases... I wonder if they will take larger numbers of coins.

Of late you can buy a single stamp on Sam machine and pay by NETS. Unlike before when they said you need to have a minimum purchase ...

Not sure about the counter crew though ....

[Strong Eagle]

Singpost still gives out pennies in change for stamp purchases... I wonder if they will take larger numbers of coins.

Of late you can buy a single stamp on Sam machine and pay by NETS. Unlike before when they said you need to have a minimum purchase ...

Not sure about the counter crew though ....

I purchased a couple hundred pennies from SingPost because the place where I bought beer in Batam always added tax to make it come out to $X.06... then they would round up... I started giving them 6 pennies every time.

[theflyingbasket]

Is there any perceived bias towards accepting 5 cent coins? I have collected a few coins over time and yesterday I went to buy a newspaper and the shop guy said he wont take 20 5cent coins.. Later I tried a 7/11 store where a lady made a face and took 50cents worth. Are 5 cents evil?
Does it bring bad business? If the coins are legal tender they should be accepted by all shops.

I had that happen to me as well...absolutely shocking...having lived in Europe for a while I cannot believe you can be refused your money because there in a particular denomination...

[MikeJones]

It's common in most countries, if not absolutely universal, to have limits on the number of coins you can use to pay for items. Of course many shop owners either don't know or don't care and will accept a larger number of coins than they are required to.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legal_tender

Mike