@jwenting said:
Not here. Cash is legal tender, and stores are required by law to accept anything that's legal tender in this country. It's the same in the US.
So stores here (even if they have signs stating otherwise, such signs are possibly illegal) are required by law to accept any Euro coins or bills, and in the US the same would apply for any US dollar coins or bills.
They only get away with refusing some small coins and large bills because to most people it's not worth the trouble to take a store to court over such policies.
Not true, in the US private businesses, persons and organizations can accept anything they like. This can be easily verifed at (for example) the US treasury website. Legal tender just means that you have to accept it to pay off debts. It doesn't necessarily apply if no debt exists prior to the time when you pay, although in some states/jurisdictions this is the case. You are just required to post a sign, which is completely legal.
I don't know about the entire EU, but in Finland for example, it's OK to refuse large bills and small coins [or whatever], if you put up signs stating such. There's some information at the Bank of Finland website about it.
It's funny really, almost everything you wrote is completely wrong.