Goodbye Sovereignty…’Euros Accepted’ signs pop up in New York City

February 9, 2008 at 2:15 pm | In News |

The Liberty dollar was illegal, but Euros are not! Why bother with an Amero when the Euro is already in circulation. One small step toward one world. If this isn’t a warning sign, then you are already lost.

The Treasury Department’s Bureau of Engraving and Printing states on its Web site:

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.

“However, there is no federal statute which mandates that private businesses must accept cash as a form of payment. Private businesses are free to develop their own policies on whether or not to accept cash unless there is a state law which says otherwise.

Companies are generally allowed, for example, to refuse to accept pennies or bills higher than $20. State and city officials said they did not know of any proscription against accepting foreign cash, as long as merchants properly accounted for their receipts for tax purposes.“ (Source)

‘Euros Accepted’ signs pop up in New York City

NEW YORK (Reuters) — In the latest example that the U.S. dollar ain’t what it used to be, some shops in New York City have begun accepting euros and other foreign currency as payment for merchandise.

“We had decided that money is money and we’ll take it and just do the exchange whenever we can with our bank,” Robert Chu, owner of East Village Wines, told Reuters television.

The increasingly weak U.S. dollar, once considered the king among currencies, has brought waves of European tourists to New York with money to burn and looking to take advantage of hugely favorable exchange rates.

“We didn’t realize we would take so much in and there were that many people traveling or having euros to bring in. But some days, you’d be surprised at how many euros you get,” Chu said.

“Now we have to get familiar with other currencies and the (British) pound and the Canadian dollars we take,” he said.

While shops in many U.S. towns on the Canadian border have long accepted Canadian currency and some stores on the Texas-Mexico border take pesos, the acceptance of foreign money in Manhattan was unheard of until recently.

Not far from Chu’s downtown wine emporium, Billy Leroy of Billy’s Antiques & Props said the vast numbers of Europeans shopping in the neighborhood got him thinking, “My God, I should take euros in at the store.”

Leroy doesn’t even bother to exchange them.

“I’m happy if I take in 200 euros, because what I do is keep them,” he said. “So when I go back to Paris, I don’t have to go through the nightmare of going to an exchange place.”

(Reporting by Angela Moore, writing by Bill Berkrot; Editing by Doina Chiacu)

With dollar down, euromania sweeps Downtown