Why You Need to Own Nickels, Right Now

Economic Policy Journal ^ | 2-6-2011 | Robert Wenzel

[Jack Black]

There are 146 copper pennies to a pound. Copper is about $4.50 a pound. Therefore each copper penny is worth about 3 cents.

They haven't made pennies out of copper since about 1981. They are almost all zinc now.

[SunkenCiv]

Somewhere around here (or maybe out at the old family homestead) I have some of the wartime funny pennies, they were not made out of copper either. :’) Also have a colonial (or early republic) 3 cent piece, that appears to be iron or something.

[Travis McGee]

Yep, I used to always ask to change bills for a couple rolls of nickels every time I had bank business. They never blinked, ever. Plenty of people need change for their own businesses. Free money, handed over the counter.

[UnwashedPeasant]

The US Mint (without congress passing a law) has prohibited the exportation, melting, or treatment of US pennies and nickles. See here. A violation of these restrictions (not "laws") can lead to a fine of up to $10,000, imprisonment of up to 5 years, and forfeiture of the subject coins or metal.

On the same webpage, the US Mint warns about these coins:

The coins are real, but the "president" is a fake.

[blam]

"I wrote an article about this in our local paper a month ago and my bank know me when I walk in. I have been getting 40+ dollars worth at a time for a while now. Funny thing is when I explained this to them the response was basically “Right!”."

I did the same except that I got 12 rolls every Tuesday and Thursday. The reaction was the same. Right!
I've been gone (no accounts) from that bank now for about six months.

In fact, lol, I went into the bank once and said that I want 12 rolls of quarters (by mistake) and a voice from behind a wall said, "He means 12 rolls of nickels." I hadn't realized that I had said quarters. That's how predictiable I had become.

[maine-iac7]

so this was decided in 2008 - have they implemented it yet?

[thecodont]

I told a twentysomething cashier that he should “keep an ear out” for coins that sounded “funny” (clank rather than clink) because that meant they were real silver. He said he’d never encountered any such thing. He’s probably right.

Back about 20 years ago I got a silver quarter in change out of a copy machine.

[matthew fuller]

"There are 146 copper pennies to a pound. Copper is about $4.50 a pound. Therefore each copper penny is worth about 3 cents. "

So when is the last year that copper pennies were made?

[Lancey Howard]

Awesome post.

[OldPossum]

I was told about the increase in value of nickels a few years ago and I have a couple coffee tins full of them. I never spend one.

[Intolerant in NJ]

...just like the pre-1965 silver content dimes and quarters have, and trade at much higher prices...ah - explains why a local jeweler is running a TV ad offering 17 times the face value of all pre-1965 silver coins...I've got to go add a few more dimes to fill my WWII Uncle Sam Cash Register Bank which unlocks only when it reaches a total of ten dollars inside, and hasn't been opened since about 1945.....

[blam]

"It would be impractical to replace all the coins immediately, so they should appreciate in value in direct proportion to the devaluation."

No they won't.

The only coins widely circulated that will appreciate are the copper penny (about 10%, in circulation still) and the US nickel that this article is about.

[The Comedian]

Nickel-plated-nickels ping.

"Economic Holocaust" ping.

Increasing volume ping list watching the slow motion Economic Holocaust.

FReepmail me if you want on or off
The Comedian's "Economic Holocaust" ping list...

Today is a good day to die.
I didn't say for whom.

[blam]

"Somewhere around here (or maybe out at the old family homestead) I have some of the wartime funny pennies, they were not made out of copper either. :’)"

I remember old black pennies, we called them lead pennies, when I was a kid, I was born in 1943. We knew they were somehow related to the war but not how.

I now think they were zinc.

[matthew fuller]

"Nickels were never silver, always nickel. Hence, larger than the silver dime for half the value (a less valuable metal.) "

Silver "War" Nickels 1942 - 1945 Silver "War" nickels were produced by the United States from mid-1942* through 1945. The coins were manufactured from 56% copper, 35% silver and 9% manganese. This allowed the saved nickel metal to be shifted to industrial production of miltary supplies during World War II. Silver nickels are distinguised by a slightly different coloration than ordinary nickels and by the appearance of a large mintmark above Monticello's dome on the reverse side of the coin. The marks are "S" for the San Fransico mint, "D" for the Denver mint and "P' to indicate production at the Philadelphia mint, being the first coin to feature the Philadelphia intial, as no mint mark was the usual designation for Philadelphia mintage before 1979.

www.warnickels.com

[FromLori]

Guest Post: Silver Breaks Its Golden Shackles

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/guest-post-silver-breaks-its-golden-shackles

[blam]

"The US Mint (without congress passing a law) has prohibited the exportation, melting, or treatment of US pennies and nickles."

We know. No-one is planning to do any melting.

Cute take on Obama though.

[matthew fuller]

I had one one time- but it was magnetic.

[blam]

"so this was decided in 2008 - have they implemented it yet? >

I can't find any evidence for it on the nickels yet.

[The Comedian]

Yup. Silver = $500/oz before I die of natural causes.

And probably before the 2012 elections.

Today is a good day to die.
I didn't say for whom.