Two values of coins (face and melt) provide a unique advantage in investments: a guarantee that you will not lose any money. Once the Mint applies stamps and cuts the metal into coins, it also gives people the right to redeem that metal for the same price at which it was sold: $100.00. This means that every box of nickels costs the U.S. The value of its materials means that each nickel has both a “face value” ($0.05) and a “melt value” ( $0.03799296 on June 26, 2019, though this fluctuates). Cupro-nickel is valuable for industrial processes such as shipbuilding, as are both nickel and copper individually, and both metals are listed on commodity market exchanges. The common American nickel is made from an alloy of two base metals, nickel (25%) and copper (75%), known as cupro-nickel.
Even if they were melted into a pile of slag, they could still be worth every dollar that you paid for them - or even more. If your house burned down, they would survive the fire, unlike paper money. Their denomination is so small, and their weight so comparatively great, that they are generally not worth a thief’s effort.
Whenever you have money to put in savings, buy nickels by the box ($100 each at a bank) and simply put the boxes in your basement, in your closet or under your bed.Ĭonsider American nickels as assets. Plus, after you search through the coins, you must re-roll and return them to the bank, which requires additional work.Īnd indeed there is: Buy nickels. It’s easy to search through one roll of quarters in search of a pre-1965 coin containing valuable silver, but I’ve found that doing so with all 50 rolls in a standard bank box can take considerable time. While conventional personal finance wisdom generally discourages hiding your savings under your bed, there’s one way that doing so might be a sound strategy.Īlthough it’s possible to make money by hoarding pennies or by searching rolls of collected pocket change for coins with high silver and copper content, these methods are tedious and hard to scale.