31 U.S.C. § 5103
Section 5103 · Legal tender
Amended 2 times on record
Applied in 43 court decisions — leading case 226 Mich. App. 599 - Zurich Insurance v. CCR & Co. (1998)
Most recently applied in Edwards v. Galluzzo (May 2024)
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year.Markers show enactment, consequential amendments, and circuit splits over this section — watch for a citation surge after a change or a disagreement. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
United States coins and currency (including Federal reserve notes and circulating notes of Federal reserve banks and national banks) are legal tender for all debts, public charges, taxes, and dues. Foreign gold or silver coins are not legal tender for debts.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
The words “All . . . regardless of when coined or issued” are omitted as unnecessary because of the restatement. The word “debts” is substituted for “debts, public and private” to eliminate unnecessary words. The words “public charges, taxes, duties, and dues” are omitted as included in “debts”.
1983 Act
This restores to 31:5103 the reference to public charges, taxes, and dues because they are not considered to be debts. See, Hagar v. Reclamation District No. 108, 111 U.S. 701, 706 (1884).
Amendments
1983—Pub. L. 97–452 inserted “, public charges, taxes, and dues” after “all debts”.
Effective Date of 1983 Amendment
Amendment effective Sept. 13, 1982, see section 2(i) of Pub. L. 97–452, set out as a note under section 3331 of this title.