The Nickel-Hoarding Billionaire

[jeff of pa]

Imagine being very wealthy – possibly a billionaire according to some accounts. If a person had that kind of capital, what coins would they buy?
At a minimum, some rolls of $20 Libertys and Saint-Gaudens would make a nice stash for a high roller. If rare coins are sought, anything from U.S. Mint issues of the 1790s to condition census rare dates in various series are definitely a possibility.
What if the wealthy numismatist was interested in nickels? The 1913 Liberty 5-cent piece that recently sold at auction for $3,172,500 is definitely the kind of trophy that attracts big bidders. Dallas-based hedge fund manager Kyle Bass has a serious interest in nickels, but he takes a dramatically different approach than what might be expected.

The Nickel-Hoarding Billionaire | CoinWeek

 

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[Digger2]

"Guns and Gold" I love this advice.

Thanks for posting it, interesting and educational reading.

Roy

 

[Jason in Enid]

It doesn't make sense. Even if the metals markets goes back up, it's meaningless. It's still illegal to melt them down.

 

[TreasurePirate69]

It doesn't make sense. Even if the metals markets goes back up, it's meaningless. It's still illegal to melt them down.

That doesn't mean the government can't change their minds once the cent and nickel compositions are changed (or if the cent and nickel are dropped altogether). Also, although silver dimes, quarters, and halves are legal to melt, very few people actually do. It is easier to just use them as a way to exchange a known composition/amount of metal in an easily identifiable form. Even today people are buying copper cents as "bullion" because of their known composition. As an investment they don't need to melt them down just to be able to resell them in the future. So if nickel and copper went up by a factor of 10, you wouldn't need to be able to melt them down in order to sell them as "bullion". Being allowed to melt them down would certainly help in maintaining prices close to melt value. But it wouldn't be required as there would always be speculators out there who would buy.

 

[Marchas45]

Lots of Stackers have been loading up on Nickels and Cents for the past few years hoping that prices will go up just like Silver. Lol I've seen and read stories about stackers putting rolls and rolls of Nickels into plastic tubes, sealing them and then burying them in their back yards. O! well each his own.

 

[TreasurePirate69]

Two or so years ago the nickel's metal content was worth 7 cents. At that point it made a bit more sense to hoard them. I have about $1000 worth of nickels stashed away from CRH'ing. Not a lot by any stretch of the imagination. If they go to 20 cents each at some point in my lifetime I'll be happy. Otherwise, they will just be a novelty. There are many other ways to invest $1000 and make more money than I'll ever make on nickels. I also have a few hundred dollars worth of copper cents from CRH'ing. Same story. Not much of an investment. Mostly I keep them for the novelty of having coins that will not be readily available in the future without paying a premium.