The Atlantic: "It’s a Great Time to Hoard Nickels"
Goldbully
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I'm actually thinking about hoarding nickels if the price of nickel continues to fly.
Chart from the U.S. Mint.
The Atlantic
It’s a Great Time to Hoard Nickels
The Ukraine crisis has shaken up prices—and sent some Americans scrambling for coins.
By Saahil Desai
March 18, 2022
In economic-speak, the Ukraine crisis has been a “supply shock.” In English, that means that in the United States you’ll now find record-high gas prices, liquor stores devoid of Russian vodka, and … uhh … Americans heading into their local banks and politely asking for hundreds of dollars in nickels.
Let me explain. Russia supplies more than 20 percent of the world’s high-quality nickel, which is a crucial component in everything from stainless steel to pipes to the batteries that power electric cars. But with Ukraine under siege, companies in the West have been wary of buying Russian nickel. This has increased demand for nickel from everywhere else, which, in turn, has bumped up its price on the London Metal Exchange. What happened next is as close to a Hollywood blockbuster as commodity finance can get: A Chinese businessman nicknamed “Big Shot,” who bet that nickel prices would fall, had to cover his mounting losses by buying back shares, shooting the stock somewhere into the exosphere. Within the span of 24 chaotic hours last week, the price of nickel rose 250 percent, forcing the London Metal Exchange to halt trading for the first time since 1985.
During all of this, of course—of course—some Americans found a roundabout way to make some money: hoarding nickels. Yes, the coin is worth just five cents, but the metal it contains—75 percent copper and 25 percent nickel—has long been worth more than that. According to Coinflation.com, a website that tracks the value of the metals in coins, the “melt value” of a single nickel currently stands at eight cents. Last week, during the height of nickelmania, it ratcheted all the way up to 16 cents. Actually melting down those nickels for profit is illegal, but that hasn’t stopped opportunistic investors from zigzagging between banks and credit unions to gather nickels, with the hopes of one day selling them off for more than five cents. Forget bitcoin and dogecoin; this small community of financial speculators is pouring money into real, physical coins.
Continues in link...... https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2022/03/nickel-shortage-supply-shock-russia/627107/
Comments
if something sounds too good to be true it is comes to mind on this opinion
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I have a couple jars of nickels.... not intentionally, just piled up from pocket change. Cents, dimes and quarters as well... all in separate jars. So, not hoarding, but convenient if it becomes treasure. Cheers, RickO
Hoarding something due to its melt value that is illegal to melt sounds like pretty solid strategy…if your goal is to tick off every teller and store clerk you encounter next month while trying to get rid of your hoarded nickels at face value.