Legal tender

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Legal tender is a form of money that courts of law are required to recognize as satisfactory payment for any monetary debt.^[1] Each jurisdiction determines what is legal tender, but essentially it is anything which when offered ("tendered") in payment of a debt extinguishes the debt. There is no obligation on the creditor to accept the tendered payment, but the act of tendering the payment in legal tender discharges the debt.

It is generally only mandatory to recognise the payment of legal tender in the discharge of a monetary debt from a debtor to a creditor.^[2] Sellers offering to enter into contractual relationship, such as a contract for the sale of good, do not need to accept legal tender and may instead require payment using electronic methods, foreign currencies or any other legally recognised object of value.^[1][3][4][5]

Coins and banknotes are usually defined as legal tender in many countries, but personal cheques, credit cards, and similar non-cash methods of payment are usually not. Some jurisdictions may include a specific foreign currency as legal tender, at times as its exclusive legal tender or concurrently with its domestic currency.