youknowme123321;514065 said:
is there a year the nickels must be dated before???
No, any Nickel will do. You may find some old war nickels or buffalos but for the most part, just plain old Nickels. They do take up space, I buy $500 at a time in bank bags. A big closet or even small bedroom can fill up quickly. But remember, if you need to, you can always pay anyone with those rolls of nickels! They will never be less than 5 cents and they are guaranteed to skyrocket the second the USA stops minting them in their current metal content.
Increase in metal values
In the first decade of the 21st century, commodity prices for copper and nickel, which make up the five-cent coin, rose dramatically, pushing the cost of manufacturing a nickel from 3.46 cents in fiscal year 2003 to
11.18 cents in fiscal year 2011. In an attempt to avoid losing large quantities of circulating nickels to melting, the United States Mint introduced new interim rules on December 14, 2006, that criminalized the melting and export of cents (which as of 2011 cost 2.41 cents to produce) and nickels. Violators of these rules can be punished with a fine of up to $10,000, five years imprisonment, or both. The rules were finalized on April 17, 2007.[106][107] On October 4, 2012, a newly-minted US nickel contained $0.054683 worth of metal, 1.0936 times its face value, at closing market price.[108]
Mint Director Henrietta Fore in 2004 asked Congress to fund research into lower-cost alternatives to present coinage metals. Although the initiative lapsed when she left office in 2005, in 2010, Congress passed the Coin Modernization, Oversight, and Continuity Act, directing the Mint to explore alternatives to the present compositions of the six denominations, from cent to dollar. In 2011, the Mint awarded a contract to study the issue to Concurrent Technologies Corporation of Johnstown, Pennsylvania. Although the contract does not expire until 2013, under the legislation, the Mint is to provide a detailed report to Congress and to the Treasury Secretary by December 14, 2012.[107] The Mint expects demand for nickels in commerce to increase from 840 million needed in Fiscal Year 2011 to 1.08 billion in 2015.[109]
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