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 Replies: 13 / Views: 2,278 |
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
838 Posts |
Just thought some of you roll-hunters might be interested in this. I searched 91 rolls of nickels over the past week, and found 618 pre-82 .999 Nickels, for 17.0%. This is pretty typical for me, about 1 in 6 seems to be pre-82 around here.
I found one roll with zero (must have been from another roll-hunter), and one roll with 14!
The crappy thing is that the stupid bank gave me a roll of pennies (wrapped in paper) instead of a roll of nickels, along with 5 new 2008 mint rolls. These are not included above.
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Valued Member
Canada
304 Posts |
Nickel is trading at USD19,000 per MT, so at 4.54g per nickel that would return USD0.086/nickel, if my calculations are correct.
Your 618 pre-82 nickels cost CAD30.90 and have a melt value of USD53.15=CAD55.00 aprox at current exchange rates.
That's a 78% profit!
Think I'll drop by my local banks on Monday and get me some nickel. $1,000 = 500 rolls = 20,000 nickels x 17% = 3,400 x 4.54g = aprox 15 kg x $19/kg = $285.
How long did it take to search your 91 rolls?
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4541 Posts |
I wish I lived in Canada and could search nickels! I have to buy the pre 83 from a guy I know at a premium. Not complaining just would like to get them at face. But I cant expect someone to search through them and pull out the .999 and give them to me at face
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Pillar of the Community
 Canada
838 Posts |
Oh no - the cat's out of the bag now! :) Just kidding...
Thanks for your encouragement Malibu. But did you see what Ni *was* trading at a few months ago? It has *fallen* by 50%, so I'm hoping to see a rebound one day.
I go through 1 roll every 2 minutes, but I also do a quick search for rotated dies, semi-key modern dates, etc. With the help of a magnet, you can probably go through 1 roll per minute. Good luck and hopefully you don't live in my part of the country! :)
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Valued Member
Canada
304 Posts |
I'm in QC, you're in BC so there should be enough nickel for the two of us! Now let's see...618 pre-1982 nickels in 3 hours at about 4 cents profit each, that works out to about $8/hour. Not bad for an evening of fun with coins. I'm sure Ni and other metals will continue to fall, then recover nicely. In other forums they're talking about buying bullion now, its a chance to make 10-20-30%. Q: if you bring all this nickel to a dealer or a foundry and ask for melt value, will they take your word that its all nickel? Nickel-plated steel nickels after 2000 are magnetic, meaning the magnet test only confirms you have pure nickel or nickel plated steel. So there is no simple verification process for a bulk nickel buyer. Is there some way around this? And what about pennies? At $3.00/lb for copper I calculate a penny to be worth about double its face value in copper. So pre-1996 pennies are worth Two Cents. Copper is not magnetic, copper plated zinc is slightly magnetic and copper plated steel is very magnetic. To make $8.00/hr with copper at $3.00/lb one would need to go through 60 rolls an hour and find 25% copper (pre-1997, non-magnetic coins). I think my local banks are gonna ban me. :-( |
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
838 Posts |
Yes, I too had estimated about minimum wage, plus a bit of fun for my efforts. But it's a pain in the neck to buy and return rolls, and will probably be an even bigger hassle to sell the Ni. I don't know what I will do with all the Ni I am accumulating. I do know that I'm hanging on to it for now. I wouldn't be doing this (even with the $8/hr) unless I thought Ni was undervalued currently. Perhaps I'm being a bit too hopeful, but I share your opinions exactly of what will happen to metal prices: fall short term, and one day come back strong. I sold a bunch of silver -- belonging to my friend's dad -- to a coin dealer recently. He just simply examined everything. That was enough for the dad to make a couple thousand dollars (above face value). People sell pre-82 Ni in large quantities on ebay and get a good price. I don't plan on making a living at this, so I'll probably wait for $20-25 US per pound, and then sell it all in one very unpleasant experience. The truth is, I really just enjoy the hunt and any profit is just a small excuse.  |
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
838 Posts |
I forgot to add that Ni testing might be performed by weight. But yes, the magnet test won't work with Ni-plated steel, and so a buyer might have some work to do to confirm everything. I don't know anything about this kind of thing, but am curious.
By the way, I had no idea the zinc cents were slightly magnetic! That is interesting! Do you know whether it's from the Zn itself, or is it from trace quantities of iron?
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Valued Member
Canada
304 Posts |
the zinc pennies are composed of "pure zinc blanks plated with 98% copper, 1.5% zinc and 0.5%tin; weight 2.25g" So zinc must be a magnetic/ferrous metal. Why the interest? Are you in the vending machine biz? I picked up $100 worth of nickels at RBC the other day; they come in a solid cardboard box marked "$100 x 5 cents" and I was able to inspect the contents easily, looking for rolls of pennies (thanks for the tip BTW). About 7 rolls out of 50 were in paper, the rest plastic in 10 rows of 5 neatly packed and easy to carry. I made sure they weren't all new mint rolls and you can easily compare the height of each roll; one of the paper rolls was much taller than the rest and I pointed this out. The teller counted 47 in that roll and she asked a supervisor what to do. Interesting reply: "Give them to the client; the boxes are weighed and must have exactly 20 lbs after deducting the box and the empty rolls. The tall roll is a 'filler roll' to bring up the weight as some of the rolls will be short"! I've gone through 27 rolls so far and found 3 short. Gotta get thru 50 rolls by tomorrow...will report my findings later. I'm driving to Ottawa on Monday and will visit the RCM (first time). My wife will do the Parliament tour while I'm at the mint. We each find the other's tour totally pointless so this works out perfect! Ahhh, marital bliss  At the RCM I will ask about selling their nickel back to them for melt value. I'll report their answer here, I expect to be surprised either by their ignorance or their interest.  Also I'll ask about the new Jenkins/Carney bills (i.e. when releasing and any changes planned). And I want one of those 1908-2008 RCM 100 year coins that look like a large penny...$28 I think. And where the heck are the new common 2008 loons. Maybe I can pick up a mint roll.  Any other questions for the RCM anyone? Malibu Mike |
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Valued Member
Canada
304 Posts |
I finished going through my 50 rolls of nickels. Here are the stats: 9 rolls short one nickel (which is why the bank gave me 7 extras) 23 USA nickels oldest nickel out of 2,000: 1960 (I'm very surprised not to see any 40's and 50's) nicest nickels found: a 1966 EF-40 and a 1960 VF-30 (love to see those 11 laurel wreath leaves so clear!) strangest coin found: a Netherlands 1984 5 cent coin in bronze...  most pre-1982's in a single roll: 14 (same as bibd) total pre-1982 (pure nickel) nickels: 304 = 15% vs bibd's 17% out West. cost of 304 nickels: $15.20 value of 304 pure nickel nickels if nickel goes to $15/lb: about $45 coin collecting fun value: priceless.  note: I put a dot on each roll (after sorting) with a purple Sharpie ... So I'll know if I'm getting my own nickels back in future! |
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
838 Posts |
Hey Malibu - nice update on your search! It sounded like a fun couple hours. By the way, I have searched about 50 rolls since my original post and my percentage is more like your 15% now. There's a roll-hunting forum somewhere (I forget the site). I recall seeing those Canadians pulling nickel predicting a sharp decrease in nickel nickels this year, due to RCM activities. I am also just guessing, but suspect that numbers will remain much better in more rural areas. My worst luck has been downtown. Can I ask how exactly you went about buying the 50 rolls? Did you have to order them? Many banks around here look at me like I'm crazy when I ask for ten rolls! And how are you dumping the junk? I hate dumping. Have fun on your mint tour. Further to that, I am almost certain that the RCM employees will not know what the heck you're talking about. Two months ago I toured the Winnipeg mint while on vacation. Really neat machinery - but the tour guide didn't really know stuff in detail. I bought a roll of 2008 50c pieces there - a great value at less than 2x face as they go for much more usually. And the change from the cash register was immaculate! No luck finding your 1608-2008 commemorative twonies, though. :( As for the magnetic thing, I was just curious because I had always thought the only (standard) magnetic elements were Iron, Cobalt, and Nickel. But it wouldn't surprise me to learn that Zinc has some very slight attraction to magnets too. PS: Now I know to stay away from rolls with a purple dot! |
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Valued Member
Canada
304 Posts |
I just found this website, giving current melt values for Cdn & US coins: http://www.Deleted004.com/Cdn nickel nickels are worth about 9.3 cents with nickel at $9.37/lb US. I walked into a small branch of RBC and asked them what is the maximum number of rolls I could get. The teller had to go ask. She came back and said $100, which turned out to be packed in their own RBC label box. I plan to take the "junk" back (full rolls only) to RBC and ask for another $100 box of nickels in exchange. I expect they'll either call security or have me committed but its worth a try. If they refuse there are many banks out there that want my business... Winnipeg mint: I'm doing that one in October too! Did they give you a souvenir coin? I'll gladly trade you a 1608-2008 toonie for 2 of those 2008 50 cent pieces! |
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
838 Posts |
Sounds good to me. I don't know if members can contact each other individually on this forum, but I have temporarily posted an e-mail address in my profile. Send me a message there and we can swap addresses.
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Valued Member
Canada
304 Posts |
OK I sent you an email, tks. The RCM was interesting, not what I expected at all! I previously thought Winnipeg and Ottawa shared production of circ coins, that is not the case, Ottawa only does low volume collector coins in precious metals using ancient equipment. The coins are stamped one at a time, unlike Wpg that makes 750 coins per second, up to 15 million a day! In the gift shop I asked for one of those beautiful 1908-2008 commemorative pennies you see on the mint website ( http://www.mint.ca/royalcanadianmin...default.htm)the answer was "Oh, sorry, we never made that coin, this is a common misconception by the public, perhaps an error by our marketing team who created the image of the two pennies for comparison only" ! You were right, the change they give you in the gift shop is immaculate! I bought a roll of 2008 common loonies and they charged me face plus $1.25, which is quite reasonable. I couldn't get these at my local banks and they aren't showing up in circulation yet (and we all know what circ loonies look like... EF-40 and tarnished if you're lucky). I asked about the new Jenkins-Carney bills, they said I should walk over to the Bank of Canada at Spark and Bank Street to enquire but they were closed when I got there. Just beside the bank there is a currency museum that was also closed. This museum is about the size of my living room (tiny) and not worth the trip! I could see the displays through the window. Maybe I was missing something or there are other rooms. They sell "mint mints" in the gift shop for $5.00. I passed. There is a small museum behind the RCM gift shop that was very interesting. Against a wall there is a coin press that works with compressed air. You insert a toonie and it immediately goes "WHAM!" and stamps a loonie-sized nickel blank with the 2008 Special Edition Proof Silver Dollar with the design created by mint Artist: Jason Bouwman of a maple leaf that transforms into a flying loon on the obverse and the RCM/MRC logo on the reverse. It makes a perfect souvenir. |
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Valued Member
Canada
304 Posts |
Here are the stats after checking $200 face of Cdn nickels:
pre-1982 found: 765
date range: 1960-1981 (excluding one 1947ML). So zero 50's in 4000 nickels!!
US nickels: 44
foreign coins: 1
dimes: 1
most pre-82 in a roll: 20 (50%)
weight of 765 pre-82's: 7.65 lbs
value of 7.65 lbs of nickel at $15.00/lb: $114.75
cost of 765 nickels: $38.25
profit: $76.50
time spent: 12 hours
numismatic fun factor: priceless
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Replies: 13 / Views: 2,278 |
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Posted 08/15/2008 11:36 pm
