Start collecting this inexpen$ive US coin

[GoldandSilverEagles]

$ilver and gold are progre$$ively appreciating in (perceived) value, yes. The shrewd one collect$ what appreciate$ in (perceived) value.

In terms of taking advantage of US coins that r appreciating in value, there is one US coin that is steadily appreciating in value that few r talking about. That coin is the US nickel.

Accding to coinflation.com, the melt value (metals value) for a nickel is a tid over 7 cents. Accding to the site a nickel is 75% copper and 25% nickel. Accding to the US Mints, it co$t$ them almost 10 cents to make one.

Obama has ok'ed legislation allowing the Secretary of the (I don't remember) to alter the composition of US coin$ (including nickel$) 4 this very reason.

I've started collecting nickel$, I would recommend that u do likewise.

All of this makes me wonder if we r on the brink of revisiting 1964 in comparison with what the Feds / Mints did with the composition of US coins of that day. Recall that 1964 was the last year that silver was minted into nickels, dimes, quarter dollar$, half dollar$ because those coins became worth more than their face value.

It's something to consider.... as I begin stock piling my nickels.

I would suggest that u do the same.

[Pottapaug1938]

The trouble is that it is currently illegal to melt either nickels or pre-1982 cents. Add to that the fact that storing enough nickels to make long-term speculation worth one's while will mean having to find places in one's house for the bulky things. I'm saving the pre-1982 cents; but all I'm doing is saving the ones that land in my pocket, and I figure that, if nothing else, I've got some savings in my cellar. I'm not buying up bulk lots of the things. If I wanted to speculate in metal, big-time, I'd go for precious metals.

A good site to use, for those curious about the scrap value of coins, is http://www.coinflation.com. It covers not only all U.S. coins, but also all Canadian coins (the cents, pre-1996, are worth more than face, as are nickels minted between 1922 and 1981, except for the wartime issues).

[Deep Knight]

Cupro-nickel alloys are notoriously hard to re-process, who knows what the market would pay for nickels (if you could melt them legally) as metal. And, if someone isn't creating a market, they would be worth 5 cents.

[Pottapaug1938]

Cupro-nickel alloys are notoriously hard to re-process, who knows what the market would pay for nickels (if you could melt them legally) as metal. And, if someone isn't creating a market, they would be worth 5 cents.

I'll bet that it would be well below the scrap price; so GaSE may well wind up with a garage full of nickels which he 1) can't sell at a profit and 2) has to keep secure.

[Evil Squirrel Overlord]

I collect 1913 Liberty "V" nickels. I will pay you $12.00 each. That 240x face value!

[bmielke]

Why is this in the NESRA forum? This doesn't seem to have anything to do with NESRA. Did GASE Get it off a NESRA site?

[Deep Knight]

Why is this in the NESRA forum? This doesn't seem to have anything to do with NESRA. Did GASE Get it off a NESRA site?

I thought about taking this down for being off topic, but then getting rich off 5 cent pieces sounded very NESARA like (as in "RV of the Iraqi Dinar") and I decided to see if this would diffuse into NESARA-world. Nothing on Bellringer's or MacHaffie's forums yet.

[Pottapaug1938]

As of the close of the markets today, the scrap value of a U.S. nickel is $0.0728031. That's RETAIL value. Figure in the wholesale buy price; and you've got to have one helluvan upside to make hoarding them profitable. I can think of much quicker and easier ways to make money; and they are all legal.

[Evil Squirrel Overlord]

As of the close of the markets today, the scrap value of a U.S. nickel is $0.0728031. That's RETAIL value. Figure in the wholesale buy price; and you've got to have one helluvan upside to make hoarding them profitable. I can think of much quicker and easier ways to make money; and they are all legal.

Maybe it is time to bring back the half-dime?

[Pottapaug1938]

As of the close of the markets today, the scrap value of a U.S. nickel is $0.0728031. That's RETAIL value. Figure in the wholesale buy price; and you've got to have one helluvan upside to make hoarding them profitable. I can think of much quicker and easier ways to make money; and they are all legal.

Maybe it is time to bring back the half-dime?

...and the two, three and twenty cent pieces, while we're at it.

[notorial dissent]

So, if a nickel is worth .07, how much is it going to cost you to melt it to get that .07 worth of nickel? And then how much are you going to lose when you sell it?

[Pottapaug1938]

So, if a nickel is worth .07, how much is it going to cost you to melt it to get that .07 worth of nickel? And then how much are you going to lose when you sell it?

It will be interesting if GaSE learns that lesson the easy way or the hard way. For his sake, I hope the former....

[Pottapaug1938]

On another online forum (I forget where, but try Googling "us cents scrap value" or "us nickels scrap value"), someone estimated that, with the $10,000 fine for melting down your hoard of nickels, it would take $25,000 in nickels to break even on the deal, let alone make a profit. Given that a roll of nickels contains $2 worth, that's 12,500 rolls of nickels; and whether you hoard them in rolls, bags or kegs, that's a LOT of metal cluttering up your favorite storage area.

You can make the same profit, much easier (and legally, to boot), with gold, silver, platinum or some other precious metal commodity -- IF you catch the price leaning the right way.

[bmielke]

On another online forum (I forget where, but try Googling "us cents scrap value" or "us nickels scrap value"), someone estimated that, with the $10,000 fine for melting down your hoard of nickels, it would take $25,000 in nickels to break even on the deal, let alone make a profit. Given that a roll of nickels contains $2 worth, that's 12,500 rolls of nickels; and whether you hoard them in rolls, bags or kegs, that's a LOT of metal cluttering up your favorite storage area.

You can make the same profit, much easier (and legally, to boot), with gold, silver, platinum or some other precious metal commodity -- IF you catch the price leaning the right way.

Wouldn't the fine be per nickle, so $10,000 per nickle if (or when) you are caught melting them down.

[Pottapaug1938]

On another online forum (I forget where, but try Googling "us cents scrap value" or "us nickels scrap value"), someone estimated that, with the $10,000 fine for melting down your hoard of nickels, it would take $25,000 in nickels to break even on the deal, let alone make a profit. Given that a roll of nickels contains $2 worth, that's 12,500 rolls of nickels; and whether you hoard them in rolls, bags or kegs, that's a LOT of metal cluttering up your favorite storage area.

You can make the same profit, much easier (and legally, to boot), with gold, silver, platinum or some other precious metal commodity -- IF you catch the price leaning the right way.

Wouldn't the fine be per nickle, so $10,000 per nickle if (or when) you are caught melting them down.

The law doesn't say; but at the very least you will be out the amount of the fine, plus the value of your nickels (which will be forfeited to the government).

[bmielke]

The law doesn't say; but at the very least you will be out the amount of the fine, plus the value of your nickels (which will be forfeited to the government).

Do you have the citation?

My uneducated guess is that each coin would be seperate charge, resulting in a seperate sentance. So if you melted down 500 you would have 500 counts against you. But I have not read the law.

[Pottapaug1938]

It's Title 31, Subtitle IV, Chapter 51, Subchapter II, section 5111; View it at:

http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/uscod ... -000-.html

[bmielke]

It's Title 31, Subtitle IV, Chapter 51, Subchapter II, section 5111; View it at:

http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/uscod ... -000-.html

I think they would be separate counts for each nickle. If for no other reason then to make an example out of all those would be foolish enough to break that law. Imagine reading about a guy with 25,000 counts of that law, that would make noise.

[notorial dissent]

So, according to the factoid, to break even on the scrap value it would take $25,000 worth of nickels, or 500,000 nickels / 12,500 rolls which at 5 gm per would amount to 200 gm / 7 ounces per roll or 5468.75 # or 2.7 tons of nickels to complete this fantasy. Did the factoid go on to say how many cents over the $25,000 you could expect to get back for all your trouble?

Now my suspicion is that anyone trying to buy even 500 rolls of nickels would set off all sorts of alarm bells and not go well to begin with. All that aside, moving almost 3 tons of nickels would be a lot of work for little return, and that still doesn’t answer what it would cost to melt and separate the metal, which I would think would be substantial, so I still think this comes under the heading of a great lot of work for nothing. Something I just can't see gasbag doing, the work part I mean.

It does sounds like something gasbag would do since it requires too many steps of thought to think it through to the end for him to follow, but I can’t see any sensible, let me rephrase that, sane person doing it.

If some one is so hot to speculate in metals it is a lot easier to do through a reputable dealer or, if you’re really in it to lose big, just do it on paper and be done with it. Gasbag’s problem is that he couldn’t come up with the required equity to really trade in commodities, and I doubt if he has found enough cans and bottles, ??? do they still do bottles these days, to afford much at a coin dealer which is the only real option available to him. I think he had best stick to recycling aluminum cans where he is only slightly getting cheated on the exchange.

[bmielke]

If I wanted to speculate on non-precious metals I would buy the raw form and keep them in my garage. Because the raw copper, or nickle or whatever, is a lot less attractive to theives and a lot harder to move than Nickles. Show up with 1000 lbs of copper at a scrap yard in Tennessee and you will practically need a background check to sell the stuff. Metals theft is a HUGE problem here. Go to the bank with 10 rolls of nickles and they don't bat an eye. There are enough meth heads that would cash in $20 worth of Nickles for $5 that you would have no problem moving 100,000+ Nickles.