I think 'legal tender' doesn't mean what people think it means; I heard some lawyer talking about this on the radio the other day: I don't remember exactly, but

I think 'legal tender' doesn't mean what people think it means; I heard some lawyer talking about this on the radio the other day: I don't remember exactly, but the gist was that the term legal tender is just to do with money that can't be refused as payment for a debt imposed by the courts. For example in the UK no coins are 'legal tender' as they can be refused as payment for a debt, but still all shops will accept them as they have a fixed value relative to legal tender. Alternatively my watch is not legal tender, but if I offered it to a shop keeper in exchange for a newspaper, there is nothing stopping the shop keeper from accepting it.