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Would it be viable for someone to travel from Washington state to Canada with a Ryedale to procure a couple hundread $$ in 99% nickels?

I have been wondering the same thing...I am in Idaho.

For a couple of hundred dollars of nickels it would probably be simpler and cheaper to buy from someone or find a cooperative Canadian to make an arrangement with.

I also think it would be cheaper to buy. Unless you have a nickel source it will take a few days to get enough nickels to get a few hundred $$. I live here and find it difficult to acquire nickels. I think it would be cheaper to buy and not travil. It wont be as fun though.

Id do it if It was a short trip

I am in Calgary and have sorted for a few years. The biggest thing would be getting the coins lined up for you to sort. I find that about 30% of the time that I order in a box of nickels they are "new from the mint." You would need to either get a bank to order them in (probably difficult if you are not a customer of a Canadian bank) or go branch to branch. If the later, it might be hard to get them to part with a couple of boxes, particularly if you are not a customer of theirs (most do not keep a box available- and those that do are "hit" by me on a fairly regular basis...)

If you do have a secure and definite source I would suggest that I have been pulling between 10 and 13% pre '81out of each box. If you sort $1000 I would expect you to walk out with $100 or so in nickel. Then you would have the problem of where to "dump" the rejects. Unlike our neighbours to the South and East (Ontario), we do not have any banks that I am aware of that you can dump your change into a sorter for credit. I have had to take each box back to a branch...

In short, you might be better off buying them outright from another member (again, depending on your plans and circumstances.)

I'm with west77. Can't order multiple boxes in because Brinks swaps out CWR's for ARP boxes full of steel in transit, and sends the CWR's to be sorted and melted by the mint!

Acquiring raw input in Nickels takes much more time than pennies, I'm afraid.

What TwoPennies ans west77 said. Totally useless to get $100 boxes. They are either Minty Fresh, sorted by CDI for the Mint, or sorted by yours truly. I have accounts and nearly every bank and credit union in my region and it is still hard to buy enough nickels.

Years ago it was viable.. and the percentages were better.. but not now.

One member actually traveled up from Texas and set up shop there for several months.. had some serious equipment.. and armored truck deliveries. He shipped out several tons. When they started delivering him palets of new steel nickels he had to discontinue operations and sell off his equipment.

You would be better off buying whatever you want direct from some of our friendly Canadian members that are set up to ship from the states.. or make a deal with one and do the exchange on one side of the border or the other.. saving everybody the trouble and expense of shipping.

If someone was to make a trip up to S. Ontario I have about $300 face I'd be interested to sell, would not want to deal with shipping anything that heavy.

Edit: I see now the OP is in Washington state not DC as I had thought.