Silver Strikes up for sale.

billryan, the "law" you speak about is actually a temporary restriction placed by the treasury department. In fact, Im not sure the restriction is currently in place? In fact, the US Mint website has on its media section the announcement of the restriction which started in 2007. I cant find anything saying it is still not in effect.

Here is the link: https://www.usmint.gov/pressroom/index.cfm?action=press_release&ID=771

Secondly, while you might consider pre-1982 cents and current 5-cent pieces to only be worth their face value, others will attach a premium because of their metal content.

For example (and this is an extreme example) the one-ounce gold American Eagles have a "value" of $50 yet they contain about $1400 worth of gold.

The value set as a denomination is not necessarily a value that matches the intrinsic value.

Here's another example from the other side: that paper one dollar bill in your pocket is worth a dollar because the US Government says its worth a dollar. But its only a piece of paper.

And one more: I have a piece of art over my desk that is nothing more than ink and paper. I consider it to be worth lots of money even though its only ink and paper.

My bottom line: I won't spend any more nickels, and if I happen to find a pre-1982 cent, it stays home along with the nickels I get in change. I know some people who go to the bank every week and get $100 worth of nickels (they come in a nice box). right now, they value that $100 box of nickels at more than $140. And if theyre wrong, they still have a $100 box of nickels.

edited to add: Let me just say that even if you cant melt the coins, it doesnt mean that they arent more valuable than their face value.

you can value anything at whatever you want.
I have a drawing from a deceased friend I consider priceless. At a garage sale, I might get a dollar for the frame it is in.
Value isn't what you put on an object, its what others do.
What can you sell $100 worth of rolled nickles for? Thats what they are worth. If people could sell them for more than $100, they wouldn't be buying only $100 a week. They are obviously speculating on a future value, not its current value.
Should you find a smelter willing to pay above face for these coins, please let me know. I recently tried to sell a roll of silver nickles from WW2 and the shop wouldn't buy them
Does it matter if it is a law or a regulation? Bottom line is it is a $10,000 fine.

I will buy your roll of silver nickels if the price is right. how much? send me a private message please.

edited to add: just off the phone with a coin dealer here in the LA area who will buy all you have at $1.00 each. I will give you his phone number.

He says that over the counter he pays 85-cents each. He doesnt melt them either.

I had them with a bunch of .720 Mexican coins that I'd paid $3.85 a pop for in 2001. Guy offered me $21 each for them, but told me he wouldn't buy the WW2 nickels as he can't melt them and has way too many in inventory.

would you like to sell your WW2 nicks? If so, I have a buyer. He's not going to melt them.

MoneyLA is essentially correct in his assessment of the "value" of US silver coins generally and wartime "silver nickels".
The question of melting them is irrelevant. The coins represent a known quantity of silver and, therefore, a large and very liquid market for trading them at prices proportional to the silver-content exists.

The website cited by surf87 earlier participates in this market.

One can find the prices for Silver Coins .

And one can find the prices for Silver Nickels .

Buyers and sellers neither know nor care if anyone intends to melt them or not. It's none of their business.

The present nickel contains metal worth about 7-cents. If prices of copper and nickel continue to rise eventually (1) the US Government will substitute cheaper materals for the present copper and nickel and (2) the price of 1946-2011 nickels will rise in proportion to their copper and nickel content.

Thanks for pointing this out and I may keep them for fun. I have a stupid question but how do you tell the difference between these clad coins and the ones that might be worth double.

Nonsense. Find someone willing to pay seven cents for a circulated modern nickel. If you can't sell them for more, then they are worth their face value. The internet is large, find me one person paying more than face for them.
BTW- APMEx's buying prices are for sales of $10,000 or more. Try selling them a couple of items and the offer is about 65-75% of the listed buy price. Click on their buy prices for details.

billryan, I think you are correct that right now it will be impossible to find anyone paying seven cents for a five cent nickel... because you can go to any bank and get all the nickels you want right now, and you can even get them in change at your local supermarket, McDonalds, gas station, etc.

But a year or so ago, that nickel was only worth a nickel. In about the last year, the "value" of the metal in that nickel rose by more than 40%.

So what happens when that common nickel has metal in it worth ten cents? or fifteen cents?

The Treasury Dept regulations were put into place restricting export and melting because the govt feared a shortage of coins... similar to what happened in 1964when the price of silver soared from the old fixed price of $1.19 an ounce.

Once the government had enough "clad coins" minted and in circulation and the shortage was erased, the rules about melting silver coins were removed. I suspect the same thing will happen once there are sufficient "new" cents and nickels in circulation. I suspect the government will start to make a "new nickel" -- perhaps even a clad nickel.

Because of vending machines we might never see a "plastic" nickel, but who knows?

As far as the "silver strikes" and which are clad and which contain silver... look at the strikes themselves. I havent seen any of the new "clad" strikes, but I know that the "silver strikes" do have lettering that says something like ".999 fine silver" or some other wording that indicates true silver.

Money, you seem to know a lot about this so I was wondering if you had an opinion about something this thread prompted.

I have a coin collection going back to when I was a kid. It's all now sitting in an old wooden beer case and I haven't touched it save for through the odd wheat back penny or silver nickle into a jar in the box for 30+ years. Given the commodity prices for various metals, do you believe it's a good time to consider selling this collection?

I guess the question is akin to asking if you think precious metal prices will rise or fall? I suspect that some coins will have an intrinsict value over and above the worth of the metal they're cast from but even at commodity price, it may be a good timeto turn this into cash.

My kids never took an interest in this so it's not something I see much benefit in "passing down" so perhaps the time is right.

Sorry to take this thread into a slightly different direction....

Dan