I actually did some sums on this and now keep my shrapnel in different piles, anything upwards of 50c I have a coin counting money box. Anything less than 20c I keep bulk. Currently have $20.90 in this bulk stack and it weights 1185grams. So FYI Australian coins of 5c, 10c, 20c have a face value of 1.76c per gram. Its a novel idea and cannot see it being worthwhile as a serious investment but it can't hurt to have a little bit.
I'm currently accumulating about $20-40 of the smaller denominations per week. I do this bynexchanging whatever $1,$2 and 50c I have as well as $5 at the end of the week for shrapnel.
Do you go into the bank to do this? And as an aside, at what point do you think the intrinsic value of the coins will exceed face value?
Yep just do it as part of weekly bank visit. If it was linear, it appreciated 4c or more in the last 12 months. So maybe another 12-18 months?
I think $200-500 as a multipurpose saving as above, is plenty for most people. Unfortunately, I'm not most people And its actually more addictive and cheaper than silver stacking if you really get into it About the only thing you're losing is opportunity cost of investing elsewhere and storing them. While high inflation will erode away stacks of banknotes, the metal value will guard you and give you a decent play on the copper price.
$500 of Cupronickel coins weigh over 28.4kg. That is certainly a lot. With that said I currently have over $200 in 50c, $1 and $2 coins sitting on my desk.
Apparently those Japanese lightweight coins (although I'm sure I got them in Bangkok too) I had were/are 100% aluminium. The US trialled an aluminium penny in the 70's when the price of copper soared, but rejected it because it couldn't be detected by x-rays in case you swallowed or inhaled one! Seems like the US isn't far away from introducing "anti-coin melting" laws and laws restricting the amount of coinage a citizen may take out of the country, with pretty stiff fines ~$250,000.
Aussies have always had to declare cash/coins in excess of AUD$10,000 when exiting/entering Australia. But you can still do it. http://www.austrac.gov.au/reporting_physical_currency.html However, looks as if bullion is excluded from this: What is physical currency? 'Physical currency' is defined in the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act 2006 (AML/CTF Act) and means the coin and printed money of Australia or a foreign country that: * is designated as legal tender * circulates as, and is customarily used and accepted as, a medium of exchange in the country of issue. Who has to report movements of physical currency? Travellers entering and departing Australia are required to report any currency they are carrying of $10,000 or more in Australian dollars, or the foreign currency equivalent. Mailing or shipping currency of $10,000 or more in Australian dollars, or the foreign currency equivalent, must also be reported What is the limit for physical currency carried into or out of Australia? There is no limit to the amount of physical currency that may be brought into or taken out of Australia. However, amounts of $10,000 or more must be reported.
seems like a good idea this idea of stacking shrapnel right now. the value plus the mintage premium must be getting close to biting the mint's bottom line by now. i've got like half a kilo of copper junk stacked up, i personally think that there is no reason why up to 3 or 4 metals couldn't be accepted as currency all of them with floating exchange rates, the administrative cost of managing it would be negligible, just post up the ratios and code them into the POS setup in the morning and have a scale on the counter to weigh it up. anyhoo, i'm gonna start stacking rolls, 50 bux or so at a time when i start getting money again soon. it might be bulky but like 500 worth of guaranteed composition coins with face value in the case of deflation would be a good way to stack some alternative metals. stacking metals makes a lot of sense with the inevitable end to the fiat experiment no less than 10-20 years down the track. looking at metalmoney.net here is the current CuNi coins and their face:metal ratios 5 0.7668 10 0.7669 20 0.7662 50 0.42136 clearly 10s are the best value and since they are all of the same composition will always be so. so i'll be getting rolls of ten cents. you can kinda see that they made all the sub-50's almost precisely the same ratio against the metals in them, but the 50s are almost half. anyone want to lay bets that within the next two years they phase out 5 10 20 and the only coin left is 50s?
Doesn't make sense to me. If your logic applies, then I can sell my $300,000 house for 215 x $100 Nuggets, and only pay stamp duty/CGT/whatever on $21,500? Because the Govt doesn't look at market value, it looks as what is written on the coin?
My bet is that all 3 5-10-20 denomination coins are withdrawn. The 5c gone permanently perhaps and new metals and or smaller coins for the 10 and 20c.
The same happened in NZ already. The sheeple will obligingly spend all their old coins and they'll be rounded up and melted down etc. Those which know will hang on to them for future gains.