Thanks To Rise In Nickel Prices, The Coin Is Now Worth More Than 5 Cents: Here's How Much

The rising price of metals including nickel and copper has led to a unique valuation of the metal contained inside common U.S. coins.

What Happened: The price of nickel has soared in 2022. The commodity is now worth $37,200 per ton as of Friday. The price of nickel is up over 130% in the last year and now up 80% year-to-date in 2022.

The rising price of nickel has led to the five cent coin, which is the only coin named after the metal inside it, being worth more than its currency exchange price.

Despite the nickel name, the coin contains 25% nickel and 75% copper.

During a period of 1942 to 1945, there was no nickel contained in the U.S. nickel. This was done to help save certain metals for the efforts of World War II. The coins in this time period were split as 56% copper, 35% silver and 9% manganese.

Related Link: Nickel Rises On LME As Buyers Return After Squeeze

How Much Is A Nickel Worth?: It has been widely circulated that the value of a penny can sometimes be worth more than 1 cent.

With nickel prices soaring, the metal content of the nickel is increasing.

At the time of writing, nickel is $37,200 a ton. This translates to $37.20 per kilogram and around $16.91 per pound.

Copper is worth around $4.67 per pound at the time of writing.

Based on a melting calculator, the value of a nickel is currently worth 8.5 cents, or roughly 70% more than what it can be used for as a form of currency.

The value of the nickel is broken down as 4.66 cents of nickel content and 3.86 cents of copper content.

While turning a 3.5 cent profit likely doesn’t sound too enticing, the difference in the metal contained in a nickel and the value of the coin can add up quickly.

Consider that a $2 roll of nickels (40) is worth $3.41.

Melting $100 worth of nickels at face value would be wroth $170.38.

Before you race out to melt your coins, readers should know that it is illegal to melt pennies or nickels to make a profit. It is also illegal to transport more than $5 worth of nickels out of the country.