A nickel is worth more than a dime

" The U.S. Mint says it has a problem. The nickel coins it is making are now costing them more than a dime each to turn out.

[PenniesForSale]

Let's go back to stones. "In God We Trust", right? It makes no difference what they are made of. Maybe, this could be a war side-effect. Just as was the steel pennies of the latter generation because they needed the copper for the bullets. Hmmmm...

[Mr Forex]

That's your normal government stuff, right there. It costs more tha it's worth.

[Paul]

Interesting info. Do you have any nickels in a spare change jar? Remember what many experts have said about this century eventually "belonging" to China? Hmmmmmm......

[Chris Sanchez]

And guess who pays for the difference in that cost? Another brilliant use of taxpayer money.

[Jenna]

I think that is really weird! I wonder what is going to happen?

[cheri]

well if I save my nickles now and hord them away, by the time I have enough to sell for extra $, the problem will be over and the nickles will be worth a nickle and I will have a lot of stupid nickles in my drawer. ha ha ha

[Justin]

slow news day?

[Erik]

The "cost" of producing a nickel includes a lot of overhead at the mint. The actual value of the metal in the nickel (which is only partially nickel) is still worth less than five cents.

[Eric]

Since it is costing a dime to making a nickel, who is footing the bill? The taxpayer as usual???

[Jason]

It's not just a Denver mint problem. It's a problem for the entire US Mint and we are paying the bill!

[Jason]

Erik from Castle Rock, where do you get your information from? A nickel consists of 75% copper & 25% pure nickel with a total weight of 5 grams. The metal value of nickel today is $22.41 a pound the value of copper is $3.55 a pound. That makes the metal value of a nickel to be 9.11 cents. Figuring production cost, the expense to produce the nickel would be more than 11 cents.

[Doug]

Watch for trucks with nickels heading for Mexico!!

[CHRIS]

Erik wrote:

The "cost" of producing a nickel includes a lot of overhead at the mint. The actual value of the metal in the nickel (which is only partially nickel) is still worth less than five cents.

ACTUALY.. ITS WORTH 7.9 CENTS(scrap value) BECAUSE OF ITS METAL VALUE. NICKEL CLOSED AT JUST OVER $22 A POUND TODAY & COPPER AT $3.55 unfortunately the mint has just passed an ordinence making it a crime to melt them.

[Edward]

For the combined value of both the Copper & Nickel got to http://www.coinflation.com/ So what if the US Mint has to make a coin that cost 2, 3 or even 4 times it's metal value. Look at the inherent value of the other coins in circulation. The US mint is well ahead of the game. What a shame that the coin in circulation are actually worth something. Remember the pre 1965 90% silver coins that disappeared. Is it possible we are being taken for fools?

[Michael G Koerner]

The Federal Government basically has two choices as to what to do with the Nickel - first, they could start making them out of aluminum or, second, they could start making a 'clad'(same composition as the Dime, Quarter and Half Dollar) version of the old 'Half Dime', the coin that the Nickel replaced in 1873. I do not consider eliminating the denomination to be an option due to the math relating to the use of a 25¢ coin (it would be no problem with a 20¢ coin, but that is for another discussion).
Aluminum coins are the epitome of the word 'cheap'- they would be worse than our present 1¢ coins (which should also be eliminated) and would destroy the dignity that USA coins do enjoy. I don't like them at all.
On the other hand, bringing back the proportionally-sized 'Half Dime', with the same composition as our present Dime, Quarters and Half Dollars, would preserve the still-useful 5¢ denomination while protecting them for the foreseeable future from negative seigniorage (the difference between the cost of producing a coin and its face value), as according to http://www.coinflation.com , all three are now just over 25% of 'face' in the market value of their metal. And the USMint has a ready and tremendously economical source of metal for these: Nickels - they are made from the same 25%Ni/75%Cu alloy as the outer layer of Dime, Quarters and Halves.
Michael G. Koerner
Appleton, WI

[Frugi]

Quote:

"A similar practice happened in the 1960s when people hoarded silver dimes, quarters and half dollars, which were worth more than their face value."

(Copyright KUSA*TV. All rights reserved.)

__________

To be correct it should read:

A similar practice happened in the 1960's when people began hoarding silver dimes, quarters, and half dollars, which to this day remain worth more than their face value.

[John]

What I can't understand is how the U.S. Mint can unilaterally make it a crime to melt nickels, or cents for that matter. My understanding is that such laws needed to be run through Congress first. Does anyone have any link to something giving the Mint this kind of power?

[John]

CHRIS wrote:

<quoted text>ACTUALY.. ITS WORTH 7.9 CENTS(scrap value) BECAUSE OF ITS METAL VALUE. NICKEL CLOSED AT JUST OVER $22 A POUND TODAY & COPPER AT $3.55 unfortunately the mint has just passed an ordinence making it a crime to melt them.

Copper's now at $3.76 as I write this so now YOU are wrong-wrong-wrong!...gimme a break. God save us from the anal retentives who have to always be right and nitpick everything. The point is that it costs more than a nickel to make a nickel. Let it go.

[Henry]

John wrote:

What I can't understand is how the U.S. Mint can unilaterally make it a crime to melt nickels, or cents for that matter. My understanding is that such laws needed to be run through Congress first. Does anyone have any link to something giving the Mint this kind of power?

No. It's just called tyranny, and it's coming to everyone's doorstep. www.monerize.com

[Jim Lundberg]

Erik wrote:

The "cost" of producing a nickel includes a lot of overhead at the mint. The actual value of the metal in the nickel (which is only partially nickel) is still worth less than five cents.

I'm amazed that people will accept a coin at the value the mint indicates without any intrinsic value. The silver quarter, which used to almost buy a gallon of gas in the 1960's, now STILL almost buys a gallon of gas. The clad quarter will never duplicate that feat. BTW: The American nickel now is worth 7.5 cents in melt value