Nickels

It is only worth it, if they are pre 1981 canadian nickels as they are .999 fine
with US nickels the 75/25 ratio makes refining costs to high to see any profit, even when nickel peeked at 28.00 a pound a few years ago US nickels were hardly worth saving, Canadian nickels on the other hand .28 cents each with 100 or 5$ FV being worth 28$

I guess not many of us on these boards are into the nickel thing.

Yes and no real loss in keeping them. If we only kept every silver coin from the 1960s is kind of the mindset for keeping plus they really are REAL money and pretty much all that's left (although ANY coin has more value than paper)

I think one's money can be put to much better use than to be sitting in some closet somewhere in the form of a common nickel. It could also get expensive as hoarding nickels gets you into the 1000's of dollars quickly. Percentage wise, there is less incentive than with copper cents.

People refer to hoarding junk silver in the early 60's. I wasn't even alive, but I'm just thinking of how much money that would have had to have been to tie up a large quantity of dimes, quarters, halves, or even dollars. Also think of how much that money would have been worth if invested in safe investments. Even long term CDs over the course of 50 years would probably put you in a better place now than having saved those coins....even with the price of silver where it is today.

Don't hoard nickels, common people.

angel2004; if you had just said that you keep them for fun I would have understood, us coin collectors do things for fun the rest of the world doesn't understand. However, the way you are trying to legitimize hoarding nickels doesn't make sense to me.

You say there is no loss factor, but inflation is a loss factor as your nickels aren't keeping up. Yes, you should keep some money around for emergencies, but nickels, who's going to want those.

The government is well aware of issues involving it's coins and hoarding and will never allow the melting of cents or nickels unless they abolish the coin for circulation, which they won't in the near future-although they probably should.

In theory in doesn't matter if you are keeping 1 nickel or 1,000,000 nickels as far as investment. It's clear that money could be put to better use, hence, making any argument for keeping them as a form of financial gain irrelevant regardless of quantity.

Besides, do you realize a nickel is currently worth 5.1 cents and has never had anywhere close to the percentage above face value of a cent.

Nickels are also heavy. You would need a giant tub weighing a ton for the premium above face to equal what just a small bucket of copper cents would be worth.

An for the melting the pre 1965 coins weren't allowed to be melted back when first out of circulation either. Once the metal composition takes place is when the nickels may increase. Similar to silver coins and really similar to the pre 1982 pennies. The pennies are bought an sold over face and they cannot be melted. I wouldn't melt anyway. They can always be traded and bought and sold just like the 90percent coins are today. When keeping the coins back in the 1960s we really didn't think of it as a big money making scheme. Just some true money of intrinsic value

lets really get into the conversation of american nickels here.

A box of $100 in nickels roughly weights 20 pounds
100 boxes would be 1 standard ton, so with a $10,000 investment you will have 1 standard ton
Now you have 200,000 nickels, at todays rate worth $0.051445, you have $10,289
an amazing $289 profit
Now lets say a miracle happens and all of a sudden you can melt your american nickels
Now a refinery can refine your nickels, since the copper to nickel ratio is 75% copper 25% nickel. Refining costs would kill your $289 profit, but would also take you for another $1,000 or so.

Like I've said if you want to invest in Nickel Bullion, Pre 1981 Canadian Nickels is the only way to go!