Copper money a possibility?

aj2525r

Hello,

Could a country do it's currency in copper and nickel and make up enough to cover the minor coinage?

I realize the variability of daily prices would be an issue but I think the five cent piece could be copper, the dime a little piece of nickel, the quarter could be a bigger piece of nickel and the half could be an even bigger piece of nickel.

Are there any metals with value around a dollar that could become the dollar coin?

Anyway, just wondering

zrlevin

Pure nickel is very hard and would lead to rapid die fatigue. Today we already have a cent and a nickel that are worth near or over their face value in metal.

Overdate

Clad dimes and quarters currently have a metal value of about 24% of face. At the current rate of dollar printing, their metal value will equal their face value in the not-so-distant future.

An intrinsic-value dollar would be useless while the value of the dollar continues to be debased. Metal value would soon exceed face value and all dollar coins would be hoarded (Gresham's Law).