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"United States coins and currency (including Federal reserve notes and circulating notes of Federal reserve banks and national banks) are legal tender for all debts, public charges, taxes, and dues."
To further clarify, we should ask why a government would enact such a law.
There was a time when it would have been unnecessary. If I owed you $100, the currency I gave you was worth $100 in gold or silver. When that changed, and $100 in coins might be worth only $20 in silver, you might imagine a merchant-creditor demanding $100 in silver in satisfaction of the existing debt. In other words, the new and less valuable currency might not be accepted for its face value. So that acceptance is mandated by law.
None of that would prohibit a prospective creditor from stating the future debt in gold, silver, corn or coffee. However, collection even then would be reducable to a dollar amount for judgment.
LA is doing something very different.
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