Pay With Pennies ... Go To Jail???

N.J. Man Shocked To Learn Warrant For His Arrest Was Issued After He Tried To Pay $56 Traffic Fine With Coins
Reporting
Christine Sloan
NUTLEY, N.J. (CBS) ? A Nutley man is putting in his two cents about what he calls a lot of non-cents over a traffic ticket.

He has been trying to pay his fine in pennies, but the town is demanding he change his way of paying.

"It's very easy to count. It goes in 10s. I mean, there's five rows of 10s," Frank Gilberti said.

Gilberti showed 112 rolls of pennies to CBS 2 HD. He said he thought he could use the coins to pay a traffic fine at the Bloomfield Municipal Court.

"I went to the bank and got $56 worth of rolled pennies and went down to the court house and they refused to take it. They had told me to bring cash. I was under the assumption this was cash."

Non-cents? Not really. Pennies are legal tender. In fact, at the courthouse CBS 2 HD found a sign saying cash is accepted.

That's why the Nutley resident said he fought back, calling the court and convincing workers there to take his pennies.

But the 22-year-old said there was a condition -- that he write his driver's license number on each roll.

"I simply asked them if I would have to do just this if I were handing in $56 bill. Would I have to write my driver's license number on each bill? They had no response," Gilberti said.

And even more shocking he said: "Then I found out there was a warrant out for my arrest."

The funeral home employee paid a $90 bail fee in order to stay out of jail. We went by to get a comment from the court.

But as soon as we got there we were told: "Turn the camera off."

"It's injustice. This is U.S. currency accepted all over the country [but] apparently not in Bloomfield, N.J.," Gilberti said.

Gilberti's got a court date Tuesday morning and he plans on taking all of these pennies with him, all 112 rolls.

CBS 2 HD also contacted the court system in Trenton, but no one there would comment.

If I were him, I would not hand in the pennies with the rolls, this way he couldn't write his drivers license on it and the pigs would have a very long time counting the pennies.

Well I can see both sides to this. He says its legal tender, which it is. But on there side, Ever try and pay a toll on the parkway with pennies? Or use a vending machine with pennies? I guess business's can choose what kind of "coinage" they will take!

They got played and they know it, now it's in the news! No comment my ass, they know they can't argue, it's legal tender...I would have left the pennies on the counter, I am assuming he refused to write his # on them, resulting in the warrent...Leave them there, # or no # on them, if they don't put it towards the summons, it's on them...