Should i stockpile nickels

In fact, I just read an article that goes over how to buy nickels, store them in PVC tubes, and bury them in your back yard. A dollar of nickels 20 , has a mass of grams 3. You have to think in terms of the total value that you want to store. You are convinced by the fact that they will never be worth less than 5 cents.

Where exactly are you going to put all of those? You can do the ammo can thing. You can store them in PVC tubes. You can build a wishing well in your back yard and cover the bottom with nickels to look authentic. Whatever method, or combination of methods, you choose you are going to be spending a lot of time and labor in doing it. Nickel and copper are not precious metals for a reason. They simply are not very high in value density.

They cost very little compared to their size and weight. Precious metals on the other hand, have a very high value compared to their size and weight. That makes them portable, an essential feature of money. Basically the only reason people stockpile nickels instead of silver is that nickels have that guaranteed downside protection. In the US, the Federal Reserve has increased the quantity of base money at an exponential rate over the last years.

This production was so hurried that they even skipped putting mint marks on coins from to Alas, there are no time machines. But what if I were to tell you that there is a similar, albeit smaller-scale opportunity? According to www. That was But their actual minting and distribution costs are actually much higher. But I predict that as inflation resumes—most likely beginning in or —the base metal value of nickels will rise substantially , regardless of any continuing weakness in the industrial economy.

It is inevitable that any country that issues a continually-inflated fiat paper currency will run into the problem of their coinage eventually having its base metal value exceed its face value. Unless a government takes the drastic step of lopping off a zero or two from their currency, this coinage problem is inevitable. In essence, we were robbed by our own government when silver coins were replaced with copper sandwich coins in the s. I predict that essentially the same thing will soon to happen with nickels.

Helicopter Ben Bernanke will inflate his way out of the current liquidity crisis. That can only spell one thing: inflation, and plenty of it. Mass inflation will mean much higher commodities prices at least from the perspective of the US currency.

Starting in , I began warning my readers that a nickel debasement was coming. In February, it was announced that the Obama administration had endorsed a change in the metal composition of pennies and nickels.

Then, in late came news of the introduction of H. That legislation has been reintroduced several times since then. Mint will begin producing debased steel nickels in or It is important to stockpile nickels before any debasement. But for now, there is still an open window of opportunity, during which time SurvivalBlog readers can salt away countless rolls, bags, and boxes of nickels, with minmal effort.

I am grateful for the delay in the nickel debasement, but this window of opportunity is likely to close in or So act accordingly.

The nickel will then begin to disappear from circulation. Unlike the mids experience , the missing nickels will not cause a crisis, since pennies will suffice for making small change, and most vending machines now use dimes as their smallest purchase increment. Meanwhile, most bridge tolls and toll roads have inflated so that tolls are in 10 or 25 cent increments. The demise of the nickel will hardly cause a ripple in the news.

It will possibly be stainless steel. Congress will probably either delay making changes to the penny and nickel, or they may just suspend further production. The ideal stainless steel for coinage would be non-ferromagnetic so it would not be mistaken for a steel slug , have low flow stress i.

Nickel and molybdenum contents should be low to reduce costs. Austenitic stainless steels 3xx series are preferred because they are non-ferromagnetic and thereby are more likely to be accepted by a majority of fielded coin-processing equipment. Nickel and copper have dropped since that time, and the current melt price is just under face value according to the Coinflation web site.

Since Bass paid face value for his nickel hoard, there was no downside risk. Obtaining such a vast amount of 5-cent pieces obviously requires more than ordering the coins through normal channels such as armored car companies. This multi-ton request had to be filled by the Federal Reserve. The purchase involved deeper motives than what might be perceived as an eccentric act.

For example, you can sell coins with silver in them for far above their face value. At one point it was illegal to melt silver coins in the US, but it is legal now. I don't know that will happen with copper coins, but that's what happened with silver coins. Accumulating nickels and leaving them as-is in their spendable state is legal. It's also a way to take physical ownership of copper. I expect to see more sales of nickels based on weight.

People are already selling high-copper-content cents on eBay, by weight. There are machines in production that sort the zinc ones from the copper ones. Gresham's Law has small business backing. Copper cents are already worth twice their face value in the copper content. Nickels will get up there, too. They are awfully heavy and bulky relative to their value, though. Precious metals give you better bang for your ounce. As MrChrister states, it is a fine idea as a collection , but not as a stockpile.

I am surprised I did not latch onto this in the previous update. Silver is considered a previous metal, nickel and copper are not.

BTW, the U. Keep a few around? Sure, if you are a collector. Put them in a collector case so they stay nice and chuck them in your fireproof safe with your house deed and insurance policies. But I don't think you are going to hit it particularly big, but it might be a nice thing to pass along as an inheritance. It seems like a lot of hassle to make a few bucks. The question I think is not: "What is a certain material worth in a coin" but "What is a certain material worth in a coin and how much does it cost to get it out of there".

Also as George Marian said: I don't think that it is legal to melt coins. So if the time comes you would first have to find a company willing to process the coins etc. Also you should not only compare what it is worth now and at a later time but also what that money would be worth if you put it into a high yielding savings account or something like that.

Trying to engage in arbitrage with the metal in nickels which was actually worth more than a nickel already, last I checked is cute but illegal, and would be more effective at an industrial scale anyway I don't think you could make it cost-effective at an individual level. There are more effective inflation hedges than nickels and booze. Some of them even earn you interest. You could at least consider a more traditional commodities play - it's certainly a popular strategy these days.

A lot of people shoot for gold, as it's a traditional hedge in a crisis, but there are concerns that particular market is overheated, so you might consider alternatives to that. Normal equities i. TIPs inflation-indexed Treasury bonds are another option with less risk, but also a weaker return and still have interest rate risks involved, since those aren't directly tied to inflation either.