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Just wanted to point out that while you never want to cash in nickels for spot value, I have found that nickels in $100 bricks serve as emergency cash reserves quite excellently in addition to the upside of their metal value.

They are immediately liquid, yet enough of a hassle to cash in that you never really cash it in unless you absolutely positively have to!

10-4.

I like how they are a nice round $100

That sounds good. I'm a pretty small time sorter and hoarder, so I haven't bought a whole box of nickels yet. But the more I think about it, the more I like it. I might have to take the plunge!

Take the plunge! Its a nice break from sorting pennies,helps to prevent burnout till you get a ryedale.You will almost always find a warnick or buff.Plus its better to have some silver color showing in your dumps than pure zinc. Plus its a good exersize to see how far you have gotten with your tellers,may have to bring extra chocolates.Just remember to smile and have fun!

I agree, it is a nice break from pennies. I have been very lucky with the nickels. I have been finding the key dates lately. Gave most of them to my son inlaw though.

I should be HoardNickelByTheTon. I love nickels, so many great finds there...especially when you're "lucky" like me.

Every few months I buy a couple boxes of nickels and just store them in my shed. Hand sorting pennies is much more theraputic for me. If I have a liquidity crisis I will sort and cash them, but hopefully they will just sit there until the debase the nickel. I figure if I hold them for years I can always sell them as unsearched nickel boxes from before the great disaster. I daydream that in 30 years I will be opening up a box, giving myself a big thrill sorting them. I am already planning how my retirement entertainment will be building my wealth.

Yes, cashing in your nickels makes you think twice. If anyone reading this is having a very hard time financially then I suggest he or she at least try to stock away some nickels each week or two. Yes, it's not silver, but then you know that you have a fixed amount of dollars on hand and the hope that their metal value will go up in the future.

Nickels are great for a stash.

Conventional advise is to have enough cash at home to cover bills for a while if the banks are closed and the ATMs don't work or run out. A nickel hoard qualifies as cash.

Another benefit is to stack the boxes of nickels up against the walls of your bunker for added bullet/blast protection!

blackrabbit wrote:Another benefit is to stack the boxes of nickels up against the walls of your bunker for added bullet/blast protection!

Yep, just like sandbags without the sand...and worth a whole lot more.

Agreed. I try to put a brick of nickels every paycheck and put them in a closet, both as an investment and as a means of savings. Cash seems to burn a hole in my pocket (and bank acct), so the closet full of nickels is assure that I don't spend every last penny I make.

It's the most resilient money you can have! Whatever happen you have some wealth safe.

In a deflation scenario (unlikely) the fiat money will get destroy by massive bankruptcy and create a shortage of money big enough to increase the value of paper money even against metal, the metal price will seem to sank in dollar. The big winner in this scenario will be the people holding paper money. If it happen you can cash your nickels/copper at face value if you need money in a emergency or wait a few years for the situation to get restore and cash them for their metal value. I think both copper and nickels will work in that situation, junk silver will still be too expensive to turn it to bank for paper money even in a emergency deflation situation. I know many people will hate me for that, as they love their copper penny and nickels and will never turn them at the bank for face, i love my penny too. But it may not make sense, at this point if it happen, to keep them for their metal value and they may worth a lot more in term of purchasing power in paper money than in metal value temporarily. At this point turning 1.0 copper pounds in penny at the bank may buy 1.1+ copper pounds like it was years ago when it was still wise to make penny out of copper.

In a hyperinflation scenario paper money will worth virtually zero, that is the most likely scenario that everyone preparing for. Metal price will goes up.

In these dangerous and uncertain time ahead, saving some metal that are heavy and hard to use (unlike a credit card) and that have a dual value metal/paper money is the best thing to do imo.

Roadrunner wrote:I should be HoardNickelByTheTon. I love nickels, so many great finds there...especially when you're "lucky" like me.

I hate nickels. They always take me the longest to sort. And I am always several hundred $ behind on my nickel sorting. I hardly ever find any silver.. yet I continue to take them every time the tellers offer them to me.

HoardCopperByTheTon wrote:

Roadrunner wrote:I should be HoardNickelByTheTon. I love nickels, so many great finds there...especially when you're "lucky" like me.

I hate nickels. They always take me the longest to sort. And I am always several hundred $ behind on my nickel sorting. I hardly ever find any silver.. yet I continue to take them every time the tellers offer them to me.

I love them because I get so many interesting things: lots of pre-60, silver, foreign stuff, tokens, buffalo, and i've even gotten a '96 V nick. I guess location is the key.

I have found that you can fit $80 in rolled nickels into a penny box.

And I have a lot of penny boxes, so it's just another use for the dang things...