Pennies are actually legal tender, but there is no law that requires any denomination of money to be accepted by an establishment. It was true over 60 years ago that they weren't considered legal tender but since the mid 60s they are.

yes

wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong! I seriously have no idea where this rumor started but I remember believing it 15 years ago growing up in elementary school and we'd all have fun messing with dollar bills [without defacing them] and getting a kick out of it when the lunch monitor still took it, or we'd throw a "legal tender" fit [which never happened. The truth is that while it's true that currently all forms of US coin/paper money IS legal tender there is no law that specifies any denomination of legal tender must be accepted by any and all establishments, ever. The only establishment that must accept all forms of currency is the Federal Reserve, and I doubt you'll ever be paying a debt to them so it's hardly an issue.

Pretty sure the law says legal tender for all debts public and private. In practice, it means that the legal assumption is you accept all forms of currency as payment for any debt *already incurred* unless a contract specifies otherwise. Failure to accept the payment can amount to vacating the debt in the eyes of the law. The main reason it works differently for merchants is because the buyer hasn't incurred the debt until they actually take possession of the item. They generally make you pay them before they let you do that, so there never any debt incurred (except on their part, where they very briefly owe you an item). I'm fairly sure you could pull it off in a restaurant, for example, speaking in terms of legality, since you eat the food before you pay and thus it's a debt. Speaking in terms of practicality, a law that nobody seems to understand is a law doesn't help you much unless you're willing to take it all the way to court.

I find adults acting like tantrum-through toddlers depressing and embarrassing, not funny. If you can derive comedy from it, hey, that's awesome for you. Enjoy it. Not all of us can.