Nickels

The federal government is taking bids to change the content of the nickel. Currently the nickel is worth $.061 (bullion of copper and nickel) and it costs $.077 to produce a nickel by the mint.  Pre 1982 pennies are worth  $.0273 each.  The zinc pennies currently made are worth $.006 or 6/10 of a cent. This is all a result of inflation; the metals aren't really going up that much, the dollar is going down in value.  How long will it be until we are saving the zinc pennies?  it seems to me silver and gold are the only effective means to defend yourself against this erosion in the value of money. It almost seems silver and gold are going up faster than inflation so they seem like an investment as a bonus. If you do not like looking through pennies then get your nickels before they change them because afterwards you may have to search through them and you may have to look by the date to get the good ones because otherwize they may look the same on the surface. I think they may do the change in 2012.  Could nickel and or copper be the next metals to gain market attention? It may be worth having a little on hand as a store of wealth for small purchases.

   Nickels are 75% copper and 25% nickel. The pre 1982 pennies are 95% copper. InfoMine.com has a lot of different commodity charts to look at.  Click on the images to enlarge.