U.S. Nickel worth more than a nickel again

The intrinsic value of the U.S. nickel has exceeded $0.05 again. As of Friday, it was worth $0.0521612.

 

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Again!?
I don't follow such things but I thought it's been up around $0.075 for quite a while.
Or am I mixing up total production cost vs. metallic value of just the coin.

 

Copper is rising , i think atm it's at a 6 year high, also Nickel is used in electric car batteries so Nickel prices are up on that. The Mint will have some decisions to make in 2021

 

I think production cost has been above 7 cents apiece for a while & the OP is talking about intrinsic costs.

What would be the alternative for a cheaper material? Aluminum bronze? Or polymer with a stamped nickel security thread inside?

 

How much would it cost to do a sandwich coin like the dime and quarter?
OR
Discontinue the cent and do a sandwich coin like the cent.

 

If the penny costs about 2 cents in it's current form, it would probably be close to 5 cents to make something the size and thickness of the nickel.

 

If it cost more but is worth less, what's wrong with this picture, duh!

 

I worked for a state government employee for over 30 years and found that the cost of manufacturing goes up because they feel it takes more employees to complete a job. I wonder if that is true for the Mint. I was told a story once that made me laugh, but in some cases is true. Many of you have probably heard this:
How many accountants does it take to change a light bulb"
The answer: 3. One to hold the light bulb and two to turn the ladder.

 

Time to switch to plastic coins. We can recycle them.

 

No, for accountants I'm pretty sure it's one to change the light bulb, one to audit the bulb stock list, one to audit the ladder stock list, one to audit the power records for the fixture...

 

Make them out of titanium just once and they should last lifetime. LOL

 

If you were to eliminate the production of the cent and/or nickel - the production overhead allocated to this production would be reallocated to the production of the remaining coinage - cause their cost of production per unit to increase.

 

Of course, then the metal cost would be four times as high, and good luck finding a material to use for dies...

 

Titanium dies of course or diamond. LOL And the initial cost of producing them would be offset by their longevity. Of course I'm just giving my imagination a flight of fancy.

 

Lordy.... Could you imagine how simple it would be to counterfeit a plastic coin?

 

i remember when we lived in Germany about 1953-1957 while my father was stationed at Landstuhl Military Hospital, by allowance was 5 cents a week. I was in shock when he gave me a paper bill for 5 cents. I thought he was ripping me off. I wish I had saved those bills. Anyway, does the cost to print money exceed their face value? If not, do a way with cents and print all money? Just a thought.

 

That would be a huge mistake. It would only add fuel to a hyperinflation fire that I see coming in the near future. The Mint is already prepared to change the composition of ALL our coins. We don't need any more debased currency.

 

This day in time the primary purpose of coinage is to facilitate face to face commerce. Any loss or gain realized from the production is peanut money relative to the US budget.

 

When they make a nickel that same nickel is used for thousands of transactions. It doesn't matter if the metal is worth fractionally more than the face value.
When you add in labor, equipment, etc. it's always going to cost more than face, besides just the metal content.

 

It's true that minting a nickel costs more than just the material costs. But if the metal value in the coin exceeds its face value by enough, for long enough, they'll start disappearing from circulation -- even if it's "illegal" to melt them.