Copper is at record highs.
Posted on 02/06/2011 4:25:44 PM PST by blam
Why You Need to Own Nickels, Right Now
Robert Wenzel
Saturday, February 5, 2011
On November 11, 2010, I wrote in the EPJ Daily Alert:
Back at the commodity level, copper is the latest to hit a record at $8,966 a ton. Copper is certainly not a "goldbug" play and is simply an indicator of economic (inflationary) demand. At some point, nickels, which are mostly made of copper, will start to disappear from circulation.
There's right now 6.2 cents worth of metal in a nickel [Note the value is now up to 7.2 cents.-RW]. When I run into someone that does not have a strong background in investing, I now tell them to buy nickels. You need storage space and a strong back to move them around, but a $100 box of nickels (roughly the size of a very large brick) can be lifted without a problem. You can stack plenty of "bricks" on a hand truck.
What's great about this investment is that there is no downside. In the unlikely event that there is no inflation, you can just spend your nickels... again, this is a great conservative investment...I fully expect the coins will eventually climb in value to at least double their 5 cent price.
The government has made it illegal to melt them down, but you will never have to do anything close to that. When you need to liquidate, just sell them to a numismatic dealer.
Gresham's law (bad money drives good money out of circulation) will take over at some price point and the coins will simply disappear from circulation, just like the pre-1965 silver content dimes and quarters have, and trade at much higher prices.
Those silver dimes now have over $2.00 worth of silver in them, the quarters have roughly $5.27 worth of silver, and you will never find one in circulation. The current nickel has 7.28 cents worth of metal content (mostly copper) in it. At some point they will disappear from circulation.
Indeed, that may not be far off into the future, if the story starts to get around about nickels the way it seems to be.
Financial author Michael Lewis told a story about a huge nickel investor, this week on the television show, The Colbert Report. The must see video is here.
Note: You can track the metal value of nickels and other coins at Coinflation.com.
I’m going to start asking my customers to pay me in nickels.
Copper is at record highs.
There are 146 copper pennies to a pound. Copper is about $4.50 a pound. Therefore each copper penny is worth about 3 cents.
>>Why You Need to Own Nickels, Right Now<<
To play the nickel machines at the casinos.
I don’t believe they’re solid copper anymore.
Except that they're now made almost entirely of zinc, I think.
I'm sure someone will be along shortly to correct me if I'm wrong...
OMG There will be a run on the banks tomorrow to buy every roll of nickels in the vault.
The downside is that thieves come out of the woodwork to take advantage, stripping homes and businesses (vacant or not) of copper wiring, plumbing, A/C compressors, etc. Even bronze Legion markers at cemetaries are stolen for scrap value.
Ha ! Soon they’ll have to make pennies out of paper. Oh wait ...... that’s reserved for the Dollar.
If you filled Christiane Amanpour’s nose full of nickels, she’d be worth a fortune!
*badabing*
True but only the pre-1982 pennies have copper. New pennies are zinc with a copper skin.
I've done three random evaluations in this area and have discovered that about 10% of the pennies in circulation are pre-1982.
That's true...same around here. Good photo identification is now required around here at scrap yards.
Yeah, dammit. If this goes viral it will be sooner than expected. I was hoping to have a few more months of quiet accumulation.
Look for:
1) A "new improved" nickel made of something worth around a penny (I've seen foreign coins made out of aluminum(!!!))
2) The government decrying "hoarding" - as they busily melt down the nickels they have. (They did this during the silver coin "shortage" when the clads replaced the "real stuff".
Starting in 1982, the pennies have been copper-coated zinc.
For a long time now, I’ve been saving the pennies dated 1981 and earlier. The oldest one I’ve found in my change was dated 1910.
All 1981 and earlier pennies go into a jar, or should I say jars.
Pretty soon we will have paper quarters and dimes.
I’ve been buying nickels for a while. I buy 20 bucks worth at a time because I don’t want them to ask any questions.
Why bother with a wheelbarrow when you can buy the copper ETF COPX.
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