The Canadian Currency Act details all the rules and regulations of what you can and can’t do with coins.
This includes limitations on how many of each denomination of coins you can use for a transaction.
Is There a Limit to How Many Coins You Can Pay with in Canada?
To be clear, there are currently no laws nation wide that forbids a company from accepting a large number of coins if they want to.
The laws simply give the vendor the option of refusing excessive numbers of coins. This is to help lower such burdens on businesses.
The following chart will provide a good quick guide of the Canadian Currency Laws when it comes to businesses accepting coins.
| Coin Denomination | Maximum Accepted in a Single Transaction |
|---|---|
| 1 cent (penny) | Up to $5 |
| 5 cents (nickel) | Up to $5 |
| 10 cents (dime) | Up to $10 |
| 25 cents (quarter) | Up to $10 |
| 1 dollar (loonie) | No specific legal limit |
| 2 dollars (toonie) | No specific legal limit |
While there are no specific limitations on loonies and toonies, a business can still refuse large quantities at their discretion. The law leaves this a little vague and open to interpretation.
Pennies are being phased out of circulation, but they are still considered legal tender.
Is it true that a business can not refuse cash?
In general, the Canada Currency Act says that a business must accept Canadian currency (cash) as legal tender.
However, there are exceptions to this rule to allow the business some reasonable flexibility.
In most normal circumstances, a business must accept cash, except for the following situations:
- Safety Concerns: In specific circumstances where accepting cash could present a safety risk, some businesses might choose not to accept cash during certain hours or in particular locations. For example, late-night businesses such as gas stations or convenience stores may opt to only accept electronic payments during late hours to minimize the risk of theft or robbery.
- Change Availability: If a business legitimately does not have enough change to provide for a cash transaction, they may request an alternate form of payment or ask the customer to use exact change.
- Hygiene Concerns: During extraordinary situations, such as a pandemic or a public health crisis, businesses might discourage cash transactions to reduce the risk of virus transmission through physical contact with banknotes and coins.
- Specific Policies: Some businesses may have specific policies in place regarding payment methods. For example, a business may only accept electronic payments or specific types of payment cards, like credit or debit cards, due to their convenience and ease of processing.
- Contractual Agreements: In some cases, businesses might have contractual agreements with customers or clients that outline the preferred payment methods, and cash may not be one of the accepted options.
If there are no “reasonable” reasons, such as the examples above, then technically Canadian businesses are obligated to accept Canadian cash as payment.
Source: Read the Canada Currency Act
In Summary
- There are limits to how many coins you can pay with in Canada. These limits can be voluntarily ignored by the business.
- Coin limitations are set out in the Canada Currency Act which lays out the limits for each coin denomination.
- In general, all Canadian businesses are obligated to accept Canadian cash as a form of payment, but there are reasonable exceptions for this.
