Well, I've Come To The Decission Of Keeping US Nickels

I save all copper pennies and all nickels that I get in change, but I am not buying rolls of them. That is a lot of space to keep them. Even though they are worth more than face value, it is not likely they will appreciate in value any time soon. But that being said, I see nothing wrong with paying face value for them.

Theres no plans to lift the copper ban or even talk of it, its nothing more than rumor at this point. Silver coins are legal to melt since replacing them makes the government money. If an old silver quarter gets melted and they have to make a new one they made money making it so they dont really care. Pennies however they lose money making so they want them out there as long as possible, copper ones really dont circulate in huge numbers compared to the zinc so they could replace them if they wanted too, but its cheaper for them to leave them be. In fairness they could lift the ban if they wanted but I dont see why they would, they literally have nothing to gain and actually have money to lose lifting it.

Its true that you can sell the coppers for more than face which is why I keep the ones I get until I have enough for a lot on ebay. You wont make much but making anything is a win for things you got for face value. That market however doesn't currently exist for nickels. It could one day but that day isn't today. Part of the copper hoarding is the talk of getting rid of the penny which makes people think the ban will be lifted. No one expects the nickel to go any time soon.

If they wanted to melt them themselves they could recall the loads from the banks of just pick them out as they come through the federal reserve/let the companies that roll them do it and share some of the money. When it comes to money they make the rules and the banks have to follow them so they could just make the banks send them in theoretically. But the important issue to me is what does the government have to gain lifting the ban, I cant think of a single way the benefit from it which tells me they arent going to do it.

In theory they could, would they I highly doubt it. Any form of confiscation never goes over well so logically you would think the reward would have to be huge to justify the risk/backlash. For the sake of argument though say they did, theyd never know you had them. They wouldnt be going house to house kicking in doors looking for them.

Its impossible to say for sure what they will or wont do in the future but the most likely scenario seems to be that theyll do nothing. They wont melt anything or lift any bans and just let the change run its natural life cycle. Even if they got rid of the penny they likely wouldnt shock the system removing them rather just let whats out there run its course. Eventually the public would move away from them on their own solving the problem like how you dont really see half dollars circulate. Thats my opinion anyway

Fox, your source of information is incorrect. The current melt value a of non-war nickel is only 4.9 cents.

I think he is thinking of the cost of manufacturing not the value of the composition itself.

It is illegal to melt pennies and nickels because it costs the gov't about 2 cents to produce and distribute a penny and 10.09 cents for a nickel , to replace them.

2 cents and 10.09 cents are manufacture and distribution costs, not value.

U.S. Nickels are only 25% nickel, unfortunately. I realise the cost to the U.S. Mint for the production of a new copper-nickel 5c. coin is now a lot more than 5c.
If you are going to save them for their nickel content only, refining costs would have to be considered.

That is not so with the pure Canadian Nickels, but I suspect that there are not huge numbers of them in circulation any more, just like you don't see many silver coins in American circulation.

I feel they are worth keeping. Some feel since they at least do have an intrinsic value of face value (has been higher than face over the past few years at times due to ni/cu values higher) I just think it cannot hurt to keep. As a small child during the 1960s and keeping those now very valuable coins, I just don't see a downside. There are quite a few that don't see the harm in keeping them,plus the potential for higher values in the future or should there be a collapse in our system. Like the 90% silver coins, melting does not have to be legal (in the 1960s there was a ban on melting the silver coins and it lifted) These nickels and even pennies could possibly be traded similar to the current 90% trading of pre 1965 silver. Just my thoughts many think it not so smart to keep the pesky nickels! There is a wealthy hedge fund manager that purchased a million dollars worth of nickels JUST in case!