Canada's Currency Act assigns limits to how much of a payment counts as legal tender when it is offered in particular coin denominations. Coins worth two to ten dollars count up to forty dollars. One-dollar coins count up to twenty-five dollars; ten-cent through one-dollar coins, up to ten dollars; five-cent coins, up to five dollars; and one-cent coins, up to twenty-five cents. Mixed denominations are assessed by the smallest denomination in the group.

That wording is narrower than the internet version of the rule. Possessing, carrying, or offering a larger pile of coins is not made illegal. The threshold determines what the recipient can be compelled to treat as legal tender for a debt under that provision. A recipient may voluntarily agree to accept more. The section also does not answer every separate question about whether a shop must accept cash for a new transaction.

The useful distinction is between money and mandatory settlement. A hundred dollars in low-denomination coins does not cease to be money when it crosses a statutory threshold, and no siren sounds at the coin roll. The law simply limits the amount that carries legal-tender force in that form. It is less “coins forbidden” than “there is a point at which the other person can reasonably say: please pay another way.”