Legal tender

Legal tender means money that the government says you should accept when someone is paying for something. It's like the law says that people have to use the money that the government makes. If a store is selling something and someone tries to pay with money that isn't legal tender, the store doesn't have to accept it. They can choose to accept any kind of money, but if they don't take the legal tender, they could be breaking the law. So most stores accept the money the government says you can use.