Blank Nickel Back In Change

The first and foremost question has to be: you may have received it in change as a nickel, but are you sure it's actually a blank nickel? A round metal object that's the same size as a nickel could be one of several things:
- An actual nickel blank or planchet (both of those words describe an un-struck coin, but a "planchet" is rimmed, a "blank" is not);
- A normal nickel that is extremely heavily worn;
- A normal nickel that someone has deliberately ground down flat with a dremel;
- A round slug or blank token that just happens to be about the same size as a nickel.

The value will of course be determined by which of those four options is actually true. Options 2, 3 and 4 are essentially worthless (not even technically worth a nickel), Option 1 is the only option worth anything; nickel blanks and planchets seem to be going for around $50 to $100 these days. I should warn you that of the four options, being an actual blank or planchet is the least probable.

It may sound silly asking for pictures of a blank coin, but pictures might help us determine which of those four possibilities you might have. We will also need to know the weight, so if you have or can access a balance accurate in grams to 2 decimal places, that would be helpful. An actual blank or planchet will weigh the same as a nickel, a worn or ground-down nickel will weigh considerably less than a normal nickel, and a blank slug or token could weigh literally anything.

You cannot tell the date of an actual blank or planchet, except perhaps by "context" - for example, if you found it in a bank box and every other coin in the box was a mint-fresh 2024 nickel, then it's reasonable to hypothesize that the blank was also made in 2024 as well. If you don;t have that context (and if you were given it in change, you don;t have that context) then you're out of luck in terms of attributing a date. You can prove it's the planchet for a specific coin (in your case, a nickel) by making sure the weight and composition match that of a coin in question.

Yes--full, large and sharp pics would really help. Thanks.