If I recall at one time in the recent past a nickel contain about 7 cents worth of the metal. I joked with friends that if you wanted to become a millionaire overnight just borrow three million dollars. Buy nickels with it. Sell the metal for 4.2 million. Pay back your loan and pocket a cool million plus. This plan is scalable. Melting US coins is against the law however so you’d have to invest in a smelting furnace before you could sell your “scrap”.