Is knowingly spending Canadian coins in the US a sin against the 7th Commandment?

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I live in a part of the US that gets a lot of Canadian traffic. Indeed, hardly a day goes by that I don’t see at least one Canadian license plate on the road.

As a result, I frequently receive Canadian coins (quarters and pennies, mostly) in my change from local merchants.

Canadian money is not, of course, legal tender in the United States. Passing it off as such might even be considered a form of counterfitting, I suspose. And, of course, its face value is significantly less than the American coin that it’s being mistaken for.

So my question is, is a sin against the 7th Commandment to knowingly pass this coin off at the store when I’m making a purchase?

My gut instinct is “yes, it is”, but I have some thoughts (rationalizations?) that lead me to believe otherwise:
  • Because I shop at so few places on a regular basis, there’s an excellent chance that the coin is going back to the same merchant that “stuck” me with it, and,
  • The merchant is willingly accepting the coin as payment
What do you think?

(And because everyone here loves polls so much, I’ll make this question a poll)
 
I would have to say it depends on the coin. I also live in an area that gets a lot of Candian traffic, and merchants are completely willing to accept Canadian coins, at least those of the smaller denominations. I have no problem using Canadian pennies, nickels, and dimes, but I don’t spend Canadian quarters here, and I certainly would never try to use a loonie or a toonie. I think the reasoning is it doesn’t matter who gets the Canadian coins – you just save them up to use on your next trip to Canada (and in an area that has so many Canadian citizens, or people with relatives/ancestry there), trips to Canada are commonplace.

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CarolAnnSFO:
I think the reasoning is it doesn’t matter who gets the Canadian coins – you just save them up to use on your next trip to Canada
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That’s a pretty hefty exchange rate!
 
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Timidity:
That’s a pretty hefty exchange rate!
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Not really that hefty when it’s just a few pennies, nickels, and dimes. 😃

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No big deal as long as it is only the smaller change and you aren’t intentionally getting the change for a fair exchange, then spending it as if it were equal.

So, it depends.
 
Well, I didn’t vote…I am a Canadian from NB. I think I agree with most of you. Since I am Canadian, we just get American coins in our change…I guess it is not as big of a deal for us because you dollar has more value.

I have a slightly off topic question, but it need only be answered with one post. Don’t you people find it confusing that all of your monetary denominations are printed in the same colour on the same paper??? 😃

Peace,
Katherine Anne
 
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PureGrace:
I have a slightly off topic question, but it need only be answered with one post. Don’t you people find it confusing that all of your monetary denominations are printed in the same colour on the same paper??? 😃

Peace,
Katherine Anne
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It’s not really that confusing, since we’re attuned to looking at the numbers in the corner, rather than the bill as a whole. Our currency is slowly becoming less boring, though. We already have a more colorful twenty-dollar bill, and other currency denomination redesigns are planned – one every 7 to 10 years! (A glacial rate of change, I know. 😃 )

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I, too, live in a place close to Canada; in fact there’s a ferry in our very city that transcends Lake Ontario and makes its way to Toronto itself. So needless to say we get a lot of Canadian coins here.

If someone gives you a quarter, then you’ve earned a quarter, you deserve the quarter. If it happens to be Canadian, well, who cares, really. It’ll probably continue to circulate indefinitely as 25 American cents. Someone gives me a Canadian quarter in with a handful of change, I pass it off to someone else as a quarter. It’s worth 25 American cents to the person who gave it to me, as well as the person who gave it to the person who gave it to me, it’s worth 25 American cents to myself, and it’s worth 25 American cents to the person I give it to. Not to mention that probably 50% of the time I recieve and subsequently give a Canadian quater without even realizing I had it. Now, there are people who go to Canada to collect quarters, and then come back here and try and pass them off, and I think that’s wrong (not to mention extremely petty).
<;;; When you view the poll, be sure to subtract one from the “yes” and move it to “no”. I voted wrong by accident 😦
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Krasnaya Kometa:
If someone gives you a quarter, then you’ve earned a quarter, you deserve the quarter. If it happens to be Canadian, well, who cares, really. It’ll probably continue to circulate indefinitely as 25 American cents. Someone gives me a Canadian quarter in with a handful of change, I pass it off to someone else as a quarter. It’s worth 25 American cents to the person who gave it to me, as well as the person who gave it to the person who gave it to me, it’s worth 25 American cents to myself, and it’s worth 25 American cents to the person I give it to.
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That’s a very good point. This far north, the exchange rate is irrelevant, because the Canadian quarter is always accepted as an American quarter. I’ve never known anyone who collected quarters in Canada to spend here; that would be sleazy (and wrong).

I still wouldn’t try to spend toonies here, though. 😃 I do have about seven dollars of loonies (and a Canadian five dollar bill); they’ll keep until the next time I go to Canada. 🙂

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Krasnaya Kometa:
I, too, live in a place close to Canada; in fact there’s a ferry in our very city that transcends Lake Ontario and makes its way to Toronto itself.
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Yep. That’s the place I was talking about. (In fact my parish overlooks the ferry!)
 
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CarolAnnSFO:
This far north, the exchange rate is irrelevant, because the Canadian quarter is always accepted as an American quarter.
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Except by those pesky vending machines! 🙂
 
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Timidity:
Except by those pesky vending machines! 🙂
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I never even thought of that, which should tell you something about how often I use vending machines. 😃 😃

For those who voted that this is a sin, I would be curious to know their reasoning, given that the two currencies are more or less accepted as one up here (or were they thinking of areas where this isn’t the case?)

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I would think that if anyone has a problem with getting Canadian change back from an American purchase, they should politely ask the vendor for American change instead. I live in Canada, and never get to the States, so I never really thought of this issue before. I do know, from working retail, that we have lots of American change floating through our system. Malia
 
Timidity is from New York? Same thing happens here, and I’m certain to pick up some Canadian coin at a particular place, not just each and every place.

I notice that establishment has more recently posted a little sticker about accepting U.S. currency only.

Ever been to Canada? The have exchange rates built into their cash registers, no fools or thieves are they. But us? we’re just lazy, crazy Americans. Buyer beware.
 
The change circulates all the time around here, too…I see no problem. As has been pointed out, the only problem is with vending machines…
Otherwise, the Canadian coins are worth the same–everybody that I know spends them the same, no objections from anybody. And it is true, that the store where you spend it, often gave it to you in the first place!
 
A while back, two consecutive trips to Wal-Mart netted me 2 canadian pennies in my change. Now that wouldn’t be a big deal except this is in the middle of the US and it came from Wal-Mart. I haven’t been able to prove it, but I have a theory that Wal-Mart is dropping canadian pennies into their cash register to give as change. I don’t know the exchange rate, but if they can save money by buying a percentage of canadian pennies for a fraction of the price, that could really add up after the millions of transactions they do daily.

Of course, it could just be that I’m paranoid that walmart is trying to take over the world.
 
JMV, you crack me up :):):)🙂

Unless you are purposely trying to defraud someone, you are okay (in my opinion). If a place gives you Canadian, feel free to give it back the next time you go in there!

Jote a note, a lot of places near the border will not accept Canadian currency as payment. The cashiers in many border areas carefully scrutinize the coins to make sure they are American - just in case we decide to be as shifty as Walmart 🤓
 
I don’t like colorful money. With euros people can see what bills your flashing from halfway across a resturaunt. Not safe.
 
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BayCityRickL:
Ever been to Canada? The have exchange rates built into their cash registers, no fools or thieves are they. But us? we’re just lazy, crazy Americans. Buyer beware.
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Us? Yes, we do, too. At least our local grocery chain does.
 
I think my one problem would be the opposite…americans coming through the cash register EXPECTING us to let them use american tender. It bugs me to no end. I’m not saying all americans do this, but there are a few that can be very rude about it! I believe that if you are in a country, you use that countries currency and not your own, it’s just common sense.
 
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