HC Deb 19 May 1884 vol 288 c660
MR. SEXTON

asked Mr. Attorney General, If he is aware that the following notice was issued on the 10th instant to the tenants of the Peabody Dwellings: — Tenants are requested for the future to pay their rent in silver, as the superintendent is intructcd not to give change for gold. By order of the Trustees, J. Crouch, secretary; and, whether the Trustees are legally entitled to refuse to take gold tendered in payment of rent by their tenants?

THE ATTORNEY GENERAL (Sir HENRY JAMES)

was understood to say that the hon. Gentleman had drawn a wrong inference in the last paragraph of the Question. Of course gold was a legal tender, but any person could refuse to give change for gold. As the rents were probably paid in sums less than 20s., he presumed the Trustees simply required that the exact amounts should be paid, and the difficulty of giving change thereby obviated.