Just Took $800 in U.S. Nickels to the Bank

[Recyclersteve]

My wife and I were cleaning around the house and I realized I had a big bucket with $800 of U.S. nickels in it. I got these before I realized they are only 25% nickel and 75% copper. I also got these before I realized the .999 Canadian nickels made until the early 1980's are a better way to hoard pure nickel. And, of course, nickel bars are really hard to find and likely command a big premium over spot. So- Canadian nickels it is.

So, to make more room for the Canadian nickels and even copper (U.S. and Canadian) cents, it was time to take the nickels to the bank. Don't worry- they were thoroughly searched for good dates, Buffaloes and War Nickels. I just didn't want to continue to hold something where the melt value is low relative to the face value.

Is there anything other than Canadian nickels worth keeping? I know some of the French francs and coins from a few other countries were .999 nickel in the day, but they are likely harder to find than Canadian nickels.

Anyone else close to cashing in U.S. nickels or are you keeping yours?

[wolvesdad]

I have cashed in any 25/75 nickels a long time ago.

Still have 30-50 lbs of CAN 999 nickels

If copper ever breaks $5/lb I MAY go out and pick up 2-3 $100 boxes. But I doubt it.

[highroller4321]

My wife and I were cleaning around the house and I realized I had a big bucket with $800 of U.S. nickels in it. I got these before I realized they are only 25% nickel and 75% copper. I also got these before I realized the .999 Canadian nickels made until the early 1980's are a better way to hoard pure nickel. And, of course, nickel bars are really hard to find and likely command a big premium over spot. So- Canadian nickels it is.

So, to make more room for the Canadian nickels and even copper (U.S. and Canadian) cents, it was time to take the nickels to the bank. Don't worry- they were thoroughly searched for good dates, Buffaloes and War Nickels. I just didn't want to continue to hold something where the melt value is low relative to the face value.

Is there anything other than Canadian nickels worth keeping? I know some of the French francs and coins from a few other countries were .999 nickel in the day, but they are likely harder to find than Canadian nickels.

Anyone else close to cashing in U.S. nickels or are you keeping yours?

We regularly sell the .999 french francs and dutch guilders.

[hobo finds]

Did you have to roll them up? Or did they bag them up and count them at a later date and then credit your account?

[wolvesdad]

When I cashed in I had a bank with a coin machine.

[Recyclersteve]

Did you have to roll them up? Or did they bag them up and count them at a later date and then credit your account?

I know of a place with a coin counter and no fee for using it. And I test it for accuracy from time to time. When I dropped off the $800.00 in nickels, the counter said I had $799.95. Could have been my mistake or theirs, but a .05 difference on $800 is close enough for me.

[misteroman]

Were they in a 5 gal bucket?
I have a few full and don't have the slightest idea how much is there.
I was going to take like a smaller bucket and and count out and then empty into another 5 gal but can't find my one counter or the cord for the other one.
D

[Recyclersteve]

I believe it was a five gallon bucket, and I wasn't quite full. I could tell there was no way I'd get $900 in there or even $850, so I stopped at $800. I imagine it could have held perhaps $815-820 if jammed completely full.

[Know Common Cents]

I haven't purchased a box of nickels in quite awhile. Not even a single WarNick in any of them when I did. I also got tired of seeing so many 1964s still in circulation. In spite of that, I've been tossing all nickels I have at the end of the day into a couple of containers. They do add up over time.

In a microburst of sanity (which I rarely have) I reluctantly took them all to the bank. I had $131.55. Nice to have a little extra cash to flash, but I think I have nickel-plated remorse.

I've already started saving them again. Nickels dropped into an almost-empty container seem to make more noise than one that's almost full. Maybe I'll have to switch to a cloth bag...

[TwoPenniesEarned]

I keep my CuNi nickels. But I'm Canadian, and we switched to steel in 2000 or so.

I believe that the government is operating a culling program where they separate and melt both the CuNi and Ni coins. So in my estimation, even Canadian CuNi will in the future be rare. Besides, it's not much skin off my back to separate it at the same time that I separate the 99% Ni. And it just goes unrolled into coin boxes which I get from the bank, taped shut, and put away for my kids or grandkids.

Anyone else hoarding CDN CuNi like me?

[JadeDragon]

I was for a while, but it really was piling up. I switched to just Ni and Cu pennies.

[TwoPenniesEarned]

I was for a while, but it really was piling up. I switched to just Ni and Cu pennies.

JadeDragon, what percentages of Ni are you pulling these days?

[JadeDragon]

I was for a while, but it really was piling up. I switched to just Ni and Cu pennies.

JadeDragon, what percentages of Ni are you pulling these days?

I rarely sort nickels now (given price collapsed) but ranges from Zero to maybe 5% or so.

[Recyclersteve]

Found another $200-250 in U.S. nickels that I will be taking to the bank- in addition to the $800 that I took last year. I had these additional nickels buried in remote storage in old army ammo (steel camouflage) containers. I didn't get a chance to go through these coins before now.

I've gone through the first $100 face- they came from a bank (BWR's- clear plastic rolls). I'm reporting the results on the Tracking Thread titled "Official August Half Dollars and Other Coins". I didn't see a separate thread for nickels, so that's where I put it.

Thankfully I don't need to roll the coins and there is no fee for me to cash them in.

I like pre-82 Canadian .999 nickels much better than the U.S. 25% nickels at this point. I do have several hundred pounds of the Canadians in storage.

[knibloe]

I have $1400 in unsearched bags sitting in storage. I have been thinking about them for some reason. They came from a coin counter at a small bank. A woman in her 60's was dumping her fathers change. She dumped over 5K one week. I bought it all. Got some silver halves, quarters and dimes. One bag of pennies had over 600 wheats in it. I just hate sorting nickles. There is no easy way to do it except look at each date.

[Recyclersteve]

Do you mean that you have $1400 in nickels? If so, that is a lot to go through! For years cash in the bank was earning basically zero interest. Now it shouldn’t be that hard to get 1.75% to 2% or even more, so that could be some incentive to go through them and make a deposit.

[knibloe]

Do you mean that you have $1400 in nickels? If so, that is a lot to go through! For years cash in the bank was earning basically zero interest. Now it shouldn’t be that hard to get 1.75% to 2% or even more, so that could be some incentive to go through them and make a deposit.

Yes, I have $1400 in bags sitting around. And yes now that we can actually get a small return on our money at bank, they have been weighing on my mind. Carving out that time is not an easy thing to do, but I suppose it is like eating an elephant. One bite at a time. I am hoping that they are as good as the other bags of coins that I picked up at the same time. Otherwise I would just dump them.

I 'll drag one into the office today and cut it open.

[reddirtcoins]

I just uncovered 2 boxes of 38-49 (no war) and 2 boxes of 50-59. The stupid things we do when sorting. I asked myself why do I have these laying around?? I've just sorted for wars for so many years I started saving those. Maybe 100 years from now they'll be worth something. Thinking I can put that $400 to better use.

[coppernickel]

I've got five nicely rolled boxes of sorted nickels, and eye them for cashing in on a regular basis, and even think like;

If copper ever breaks $5/lb I MAY go out and pick up 2-3 $100 boxes.

Coin has dried up around here, box coins need an account and a special order. I'm afraid when the price starts to move it will not be possible to get any.

The coin supply is so small in town I've come to recall the last time I had each quarter and many of the cents. I pay with dollar bills and keep all the copper cents. I've not seen a copper in town for months, but most people only use plastic.

[Recyclersteve]

Found another $200-250 in U.S. nickels that I will be taking to the bank- in addition to the $800 that I took last year... I've gone through the first $100 face- they came from a bank (BWR's- clear plastic rolls).

I've gone through the rest of the nickels. The vast majority (about $200ish) were nickels I went through when I would only save pre-1955 nickels and didn't save 2009's. So I decided to go through those rolls one more time. I didn't officially recorded what happened the second time, as I recorded it the first time and didn't want to report findings on the same coins twice.

The other $32.00 in face (not previously gone through) went this way:

$32.00 face- Coins received from bank in 2011:
1 War nickel (1943-P)
1 Canadian nickel (1999)
5 Pre-1960 nickels
2 Nickels dated 2009