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Did the RCM accidentally mint some nickels post 2000 out of cupronickel?

I was going through my Ryedale separated nickels and found some old ladies amongst my 82-2000 pile and thought, huh? I ran them through the Ryedale about 10 times with different sensitivities set, but could never convince the Ryedale to see them as different from my other cupronickel coins.

I thought perhaps the Ryedale was broken....and then it occured to me to check these things with a magnet, and they don't pick up! Post Y2K CDN nickels are supposed to be made out of steel.

What the heck are these things? Is this common?

Quite common. For whatever reason the RCM used CuNi to make some nickels in 2000 and again in 2006. Might have to do with limited capacity in the plating machines. I learned they have done several expansions in the plating area over the years when I toured the Winnipeg mint.

Why are you sorting out CuNi coins? The better target is the Ni ones.

I'm sorting the box anyhow, and there's about $25 FV CuNi in every box. That's still $30 melt value and inflation proof. They take up way less space than pennies too.

A 20% ROI is worth keeping.

JadeDragon wrote:Why are you sorting out CuNi coins?

I sort out all cupronickel nickels, return the steel nickels first, then keep the RCM cupronickel nickels for as long as possible until I need or want the money for something else. I tend to return the RCM cupronickel nickels to the same branch location where I get them, unlike the branch location where I return the steel nickels (which is a lot further away). So, I eventually do return or spend all RCM cupronickel nickels. However, I keep all U.S. Mint cupronickel nickels, which are about 1.25% of the nickels in circulation around here.

I still havent gotten around to returning my CuNi as well. I think Im going to hoard them as well. If I need the money they will be the first to go. So heres to hoping they will be passed on from generation to generation.

And back to the thread topic... any 2000, 2001, and 2006 without a P or mint mark are CuNi. I keep those seperate if I catch them because they are going to be more scarce since the gov started to recall all the faulty coins that could cause problems for the make believe maple leaf monetary system. If a coin contains something of value... how could one make up money?