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There is no law that anyone HAS to take your money for anything. The only folks that by law have to accept any form of legal tender is the federal government, including the post office. By the way, stamps are legal tender as well under most circumstances (I don't suggest trying to pay your IRS bill in stamps). As for anyone else, they can take payment in any way that they see fit. Technically, they could only accept credit cards if they wanted or only barter. Hey, they could require Canadian money if they wanted. Most businesses are going to try to make it as easy as possible for their customers to do business with them, however, and are going to pretty much accept most things, within reason. For instance, if you walk into a Subway and are willing to sign over your car title for a sandwich, they can accept that as payment. The oposite side of the equation is true too - they could only accept $1 bills if they want.
I very well could be wrong on this, but I think that the term "legal tender" came up back when the US was on the gold standard, and every paper dollar was redeemable for a dollar's worth of gold.
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