Santa Cruz man tries to make cents of parking tickets, tries to pay with 30,000 pennies
Arizona Coin Collector
Photos of Robert Havens loading coins in the back
of his car shown on the link below.
------------------------------
FROM:
http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/ci_10733993?source=rss
Santa Cruz man tries to make cents of parking tickets, tries to pay with
30,000 pennies
Jennifer Squires
Sentinel Staff Writer
10/16/2008 01:31:11 AM PDT
SANTA CRUZ -- Robert Havens, 74, had a first recently at the
Lee Street home he's lived in for nearly a half-century.
He got parking tickets.
Havens, a wiry retired tree-trimmer who wears a straw hat
and loose Wranglers, has several vehicles that don't all
fit in his driveway. So he parks his motor home, dump truck
and flat bed on the quiet neighborhood street off
Emeline Avenue.
A city ordinance states vehicles parked on public streets
must be moved every 72 hours -- a rule to prevent people
from storing or abandoning their cars on streets -- and
Havens said that's a dance he's gotten used to. He said
he moves his vehicles every time a city parking officer
or police community service officer marks his tires.
Havens had escaped parking problems until this fall, when
he found three tickets on three vehicles after spending
a long weekend visiting his son in Modesto. He claims he
was only gone from 4 p.m. on a Friday to 6 a.m. Sunday,
but in that time he racked up three $100 parking tickets.
He plans to contest the tickets, but the city requires
people to pay their parking fines before an appeal
hearing is scheduled.
So in protest, he tried to pay the fine in pennies
Wednesday.
"I'm just giving them back a little bit of what I get
every week," Havens said.
He went to four banks to exchange a portion of his
Social Security check for 30,000 pennies, which he
delivered to the downtown parking office Wednesday
afternoon.
Going into it, Havens anticipated a showdown.
"I know they're going to have a fit -- for sure," he
said before rolling the 180 pounds of pennies the
block and a half from his car to the parking office
on Locust Street.
He even brought a letter citing the Uniform Commercial
Code that states pennies are money.
"I think pennies are legal tender in the United States
and I think they should be accepted," Havens said.
"Any government-run operation should have to accept
them."
After the parking office supervisor Claudia Carlson
told him coins weren't an acceptable form of
payment -- the office doesn't take loose change, not
just Havens' 30,000 pennies -- he reluctantly rolled
the dolly of buckets back to his car.
"Ha ha, I knew that was coming," Havens said.
But his real disappointment was the lack of resolution
to the parking problems in his neighborhood. When the
pennies weren't accepted, he was given until 5 p.m.
Wednesday to pay the $300 fine and decided not to. By
not making the payment, Havens' hearing to appeal the
tickets wasn't scheduled. He's not sure what will
happen next.
"I'm going to let it go to the next level, whatever
that is," Havens said, speculating that a warrant may
be issued for his arrest. "I guess I'll find out."
But Havens did make one decision Wednesday: to deposit
the pennies in his granddaughter's bank account.
Contact Jennifer Squires at
429-2449 or jsqu...@santacruzsentinel.com.
..
"Roßert G. Schaffrath"
tender?
Arizona Coin Collector
""Roßert G. Schaffrath"" <rscha...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:48f87c10$0$5666$607e...@cv.net...
> Since when are more than 25 pennies (and nickels for that matter) legal
> tender?
>
Hello
First it should be pointed out the United State
Has long abandoned the gold standard and
Replace it with Fiat Money. There are no
Countries in the word using the gold standard
For domestic or international commerce.
Below are three section of the United States
Constitution that deals with the "coinage" of
money. Paper money (green backs), did not really
start until 1864 in the United States. The framers of
the Constitution wrote this at a time when the
Gold Standard was used and accepted for domestic
commerce.
FROM:
http://www.house.gov/house/Constitution/Constitution.html
Under Articl 1, Section 8
Clause 5: To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and
of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and
Measures
Clause 6: To provide for the Punishment of counterfeiting
the Securities and current Coin of the United States
Under Article 1, Section 10
Clause 1: No State shall enter into any Treaty, Alliance,
or Confederation; grant Letters of Marque and
Reprisal; coin Money; emit Bills of Credit; make any Thing
but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts; pass
any Bill of Attainder, ex post facto Law, or Law impairing
the Obligation of Contracts, or grant any Title of Nobility.
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
Legal Tender definition:
Money recognized by law as acceptable payment for debts owed
to creditors. In the United States, legal tender (also called
lawful money) is all forms of circulating paper money, mostly
Federal Reserve Notes, and coins. The term means that money
offered as payment has the backing of the government and must
be accepted by a creditor, unless a contract calls for another
method of payment.
Fiat Money definition:
Inconvertible money that is made legal tender by the decree,
or fiat, of the government but that is not covered by a specie
reserve. It is commonly understood to be of paper, although it
may also consist of overvalued metal coins. The circulation of
fiat money may lead to inflation, whereas money redeemable in
gold or other securities is held much less likely to do so.
Under conditions of proper monetary management, however, fiat
paper money can be a stable currency. In fact, contemporary
American money is essentially fiat money. All Federal Reserve
notes and most circulating coins are money because the
government says they are, not because they are backed by
precious metals. Earlier, less stable examples of fiat paper
money were the continentals issued by the American government
during the Revolutionary War, the assignats issued during the
French Revolution, and the greenbacks issued by the U.S.
government during the Civil War. Most such issues were
accompanied by severe price rises.