Monday, February 13, 2012

Start Tucking Away Your Nickels Now!

The current nickel is made of 75% copper and 25% nickel. At current metal prices, there is 5.7 cents of metal in a nickel. As price inflation accelerates, I expect the metal value to soar and these nickels to disappear from circulation the way silver dimes and quarters did in the 1970s. I explain this here.

It is very likely that the U.S. Mint will stop producing the nickel in its current metallic form, because it costs more than 5 cents to produce. Indeed, President Obama, as part of his recent budget proposal, wants to change the composition of nickels and pennies to save money.

The president’s budget would give the Treasury Department the ability to “change the composition of coins to more cost-effective materials.”

This is as big a signal that you are going to get that at some point nickels, composed of 75% copper and 25% nickel, will disappear from circulation.

Here's the current value of silver dimes and quarters (via coinflation) that you could in the early 1970s tuck away at face value:


1964 Roosevelt Dime1946-1964 Roosevelt Dime$0.10 face value:$2.4378 current value



1963 Silver Quarter1932-1964 Washington Quarter$0.25 face value      $6.0945 current value      

17 comments:

  1. i have been doing this for two years. i have asked at banks about getting nickels, which sometimes gets me whatever they have in the drawer; usually i get turned down over any coin request. i have had cashiers hand me five to nine pennies in change on at least three occasions.

    time is definitely running out on this one.

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  2. Best part is, when you order nickels in bulk online, they ship via USPS flat rate boxes.

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  3. And don't forget to stash away any pre-1982 pennies! Those are already fetching a premium on eBay.

    Here's my account of when I started stashing these coins:

    http://www.nosupercouponing.com/2012/02/how-to-turn-pennies-into-dimes.html

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  4. Thinking about making a $5000 "purchase" tomorrow. I wonder what my bank will say.

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    1. Probably nothing. If you buy $1 million worth though that's a whole other story. From. ZH:

      He stillowned stacks of gold and platinum bars that had roughly doubled in value, but he remained on the lookout for hard stores of wealth as a hedge against what he assumed was the coming debasement of fiat currency. Nickels,forinstance.

      “The value of the metal in a nickel is worth six point eight cents,” he said. “Did you know that?”

      I didn’t.

      “I just bought a million dollars’ worth of them,” he said, and then, perhaps sensing I couldn’t do the math: “twenty million nickels.”

      “You bought twenty million nickels?”

      “Uh-huh.”

      “How do you buy twenty million nickels?”

      “Actually, it’s very difficult,” he said, and then explained that he had to call his bank and talk them into ordering him twenty million nickels. Thebank had finally doneit, but the Federal Reserve had its own questions. “The Fed apparently called my guy at the bank,” he says. “They asked him, ‘Why do you want all these nickels?’ So he called me and asked, ‘Why do you want all these nickels?’ And I said, ‘I just likenickels.’”

      He pulled out a photograph of his nickels and handed it to me. There they were, piled up on giantwooden palletsin a Brink’s vault in downtown Dallas.

      “I’m telling you, in the next two years they’ll change the content of the nickel,” he said. “You really ought to call your bank and buy some now.”
      http://www.zerohedge.com/news/some-words-advice-kyle-bass

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  5. They simply will not circulate with a metal value over face value. I haven't gotten rid of a nickel in a while now, and I'm sure there are people going hardcore with this, hoarding tens of thousands of nickels.

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  6. I still think this is stupid. I tried getting $1,000 worth of nickels, and in addition to being a nuisance, spending time, gas and looking like an idiot, as well as taking up room, it was just a waste of time. So the price goes up 5 times. Now I have $5,000 dollar. Not bad... but it will it will still only pay for 2/3rds of my property taxes here in the Socialist Workers' Thugocracy of Illinois. I'd rather put my time an effort elsewhere. Unless you are Kyle Bass, and can buy $20 million dollars worth of nickels, it seems useless. This being said, I do keep all my nickels from my change, but thats about it. Maybe if I had a basement I might feel different

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  7. wouldnt it just be better to buy copper bars rather than store all those nickels?

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    1. You only have to pay face value for the nickels, compared to metal value plus markup of a copper bar.

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  8. even if they double in value and you had 10k worth of nickels...who's going to buy 20k worth of nickels?

    I just ask because it seems like such a small store of wealth. I guess thats how they used to feel about silver. I guess you could sell bags of junk copper nickels?

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  9. The fact that you are getting .1% for keeping your money in the bank makes this a no brainer. At least get a few thousand. At worst you miss out on 1 or 2 bucks.

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  10. Insert image of Person from the Great Depression selling apples on the sidewalk for just One nickel *here*

    Anonymous @ 08:07 AM asked, "...who's going to buy 20k worth of nickels?"

    Answer: the scrap metal guys,... you don't get out much, do you? Just kidding,... but seriously,... or your 20-something?

    Also, Deft @ 09:38 PM bravely stated, "They simply will not circulate with a metal value over face value."

    How do you know this?

    I imagine lots of other People have given this no thought as well.
    Hint: metal has value, promises usually don't.

    Then, Anonymous @ 07:39 AM "I still think this is stupid. ... I'd rather put my time an effort elsewhere."

    Oh yeah, where's that?

    Imagine stocks dropping in value, no body wanting to buy much of anything you have...

    Again, Anonymous @ 07:39 AM, "...it seems useless."

    Imagine stocks dropping in value, and no body wanting to buy much of anything you have,... except for your dang nickels.

    However; Anonymous @ 08:05 AM asked, "wouldn't it just be better to buy copper bars rather than store all those nickels?"

    Answer, it's a double play, a safer play for those who think deflation is a possibility.
    The Dollar drops and they come out ok. The Dollar doesn't drop and they still come out ok,... it's all still m-o-n-e-y,... it's The Whole point of having metals - In - money,... something a whole big swath of the population is totally clueless about.

    - clark

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    1. @ Clark. Bam!! Nicely put.

      My young, small family will start stock piling as well. So far we haven't had any luck on the old quarters or dimes.

      This site is great! It helps those that want help.

      -Broc

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  11. I went into the bank branch where I normally bank and asked if I could withdraw money in nickels. They said "sure, how much do you want", My reply was "how much will you give me". They said they would give me as many as I wanted. So I asked for $20k in nickels, they checked my account balance and said "Ok we'll have it next Thursday". I figure I'd rather have it in nickels that let the B of A crooks keep using it for free. So Thursday rolled around and I showed up with my F-350 flatbed ready for 4400 lbs of nickels. I was pretty sure they didn't do the math on the weight of $20k in nickels. Sure enough the manager came out and apologized and explained that with the extra weight it would take an extra delivery person and their vault couldn't hold it. So I asked "how about $1,000 a week?". He said, "sure". I just finished picking up my 2nd weekly $1000 shipment and reiterated that I wanted $1000 in nickels each week. I'll do this until I have most of my nest egg out of the bank. Actually I'm thinking I'll build a safe room in my garage that has walls filled with nickel rolls.

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  12. ive been doing $10 a week. i have $110 now. its only 5 rolls, but i love the look on the clerks faces every time

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  13. Very interesting. I've heard alot about people hunting for silver quarters in rolls, but I haven't really hurt much buzz around the nickel in well...nickels! I may become a hoarder now...: ) Thanks!

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