I’m reading Rick Harrision’s License to Pawn. I haven’t come to any startling revelations from its contents yet, but it’s nice mind candy. Anyway, he has a chapter called “Research in Action” about some of the more esoteric ways he’s tried to make money over the years. One such method was to buy up as many nickels as he could, then scrap them for about $.08 a piece, turning a tidy 60% profit. Of course, it soon became illegal to scrap nickels, so Rick was left holding several bags of Thomas Jefferson portraits.
As a postscript, he mentions that it is now a felony to take more than $5 worth of nickels out of the United States. Is this true? If so, this is probably the most innocuous felony that I’ve ever heard of.
Also, how is the law on not scrapping nickels enforced? Does the secret service keep track of metals coming onto the market and demand accountability from every scrap dealer who trips a certain threshold?
lists the melt value of the 1946-current nickels as 2.8 cents so I don’t know how he made a profit, unless he was melting wartime silver nickels which have a melt value of about 88 cents.
Note that’s the value of the metal and doesn’t include the cost of melting or separating the metals
According to this:
[QUOTE=US Code]
The Secretary may prohibit or limit the exportation, melting, or treatment of United States coins when the Secretary decides the prohibition or limitation is necessary to protect the coinage of the United States.
[/QUOTE]
…and according to this:
[QUOTE=US Mint]
Specifically, the new regulations prohibit, with certain exceptions, the melting or treatment of all one-cent and 5-cent coins. The regulations also prohibit the unlicensed exportation of these coins, except that travelers may take up to $5 in these coins out of the country, and individuals may ship up to $100 in these coins out of the country in any one shipment for legitimate coinage and numismatic purposes.
…
The new regulations authorize a fine of not more than $10,000, or imprisonment of not more than five years, or both, against a person who knowingly violates the regulations. In addition, by law, any coins exported, melted, or treated in violation of the regulation shall be forfeited to the United States Government.
[/QUOTE]
Note that that was 10 years ago, and these things are subject to change as material prices change.
According to this site, the ban is still in place, even though the material costs are such that there is no profit to be made, so it seems like he was right on this one.