Nickels and Pennies: Hoarding Strategies, Rationale

The composition of nickels has not changed in many decades. It did not change in 2014. Nickels are cupro-nickel, 75% copper and 25% nickel, up to the present moment.

The way to do this is NOT to try to save individual nickels, onesy-twosy. Too much effort. Let the U.S. mint do the grunt work of accumulating, counting, rolling. Go to the bank and ask for a BOX of nickels, a mint box, containing 50 rolls of nickels (2000 nickels), neatly rolled and filling a box weighing 22 lbs. Cost: $100. Good investment. Buy multiple boxes. You can always take them back to the bank if necessary, whereas you cannot bring in large quantities of loose nickels.

You cannot do this with pennies since the pre-82s are not available anymore from banks. They ARE however available from portlandmint.com: 68 lb box, $100 face value (10,000 pennies), for $191 plus $16 shipping. Great deal. You can also buy a TON of pennies for about $5000, if you're that serious about it. All pre-82s, high copper content. They also sell nickels, though with a 12% premium over face value; might be worthwhile if your banks are out of nickels.

In other words: don't fool around. If you want to do this, DO IT. Not with loose pocket change, but by the box. Wholesale, not retail.

And one more thing: the value of these coins will never be in their melt value, but in their value in the event of dollar devaluation. If and when the dollar is devalued, likely that all dollars will lose value EXCEPT hard coins. Historically, in currency devaluations, coins are exempted because too difficult to re-do zillions of coin-operated machines. Your nickels could in that event wind up being worth a quarter or perhaps even a full dollar in today's purchasing power.

Nickels cannot be melted down for their metal, because (aside from the fact that it is illegal) too difficult to separate the nickel from the copper. Cupro-nickel is considered "contaminated" and unsuitable for melt. This could possibly change if, say, nickel value went to some wild high, much higher than today, hence making the costly separation worthwhile. But don't count on it. Probably won't happen, ever.

Also, in the event of a really hard crash/collapse (mad-max style), base metal coins could be very useful for local trade, in the absence of other media. Nickels would be great. Pre-82 pennies very good. And even post-82 pennies, which are 97% zinc, since zinc is not exactly cheap anymore. Spot price around $3500/ton, whereas copper is going for $10000/ton. Even the lowly post-82 penny could be useful for trade! Post-82 pennies can of course be bought at banks by the box, same as nickels, and it might not be a bad idea to have a few.