A Nickel Is Worth $.065

[competentone]

The value of the nickel and copper in a nickel coin is worth six and one-half cents, based upon the most recent prices for the metals.

I think I'm going to convert all my assets into nickels and create an instant 30% increase in my net worth!

(When I explained my intentions to my wife, she didn't seem very impressed. I guess she just can't see the brilliance of my plan!)

[red-beard]

I'm glad to see we're on the Nickel standard.

Back about 20-30 years ago, this problem came up with pennies. They changed the ratio of copper-zinc from 90/10 to 10/90

[Porsche-O-Phile]

Copper is very expensive right now - I'm constantly hearing stories from guys on our job sites about copper coils and rods getting ripped off for scrap metal - they're having to use extra precautions and security whenever they do anything involving copper components (grounding rods, etc.)

At one site, vandals literally dug a grounding rod that had been INSTALLED out of the ground and stole it! Very industrious!

[red-beard]

Recently, there have been a lot of thefts of air conditioning units for the copper inside.The stupid theives do not understand that:

1. The condensor coils are aluminium
2. The A/C condensor is worth a lot more whole!

The one that has Houston up in arms is the theft of the A/C units from a retirement center.

[sketchers356]

Its illegal to do this however.

I can't believe that our money is devaluing so quickly, AND it COSTS us to make more money.

[Dan in Pasadena]

Jeff, I work on the Metro Light Rail projects, currently the Gold Line Eastside Extension project that isunder construction.

Years ago I was on the Metro Green Line when we were building it and we had begun stringing up the catenary line. That line is actually 5/8" solid copper and costs a fortune. One Monday morning our Systems contractor came to work to find that some of the future Supreme Court Justices and Nobel Laureates that live in Nickerson Gardens had gone on a spree over the weekend and cut down several THOUSAND feet of catenary with hacksaws (!!!). That was no easy task. After cutting it all down they needed a way to haul it so they stole a half ton truck. They had put all these lengths of solid copper into it and hadn't realized the weight would be SO heavy the damned truck wouldn't move. Kinda like that now infamous shot of the Jetta with stacks of plywood strapped to its roof and the suspension destroyed, if you remember it.

We found the truck, still reeking of burnt clutch and with the suspension bottomed out about a mile away from our work zone. Classic.

Oh and P.S. Some numbnuts in that crowd had the sense to know that catenary carries current ('ya think?!) so they got the bright idea to use long auto jumper cables to ground it and had driven a 2": wide steel construction stake into the ground and clammped the other end to it. Now, the system had not yet been energized at that time or the person that did the clamping would have been...well....simply GONE. It carries 750 volts DC and enough amperage to move multiple rail cars weighing tens of thousands of pounds. It would have been a classic Darwin Award winner but they lucked out!

[masraum]

I've heard of the telephone cable between telephone poles being stolen for the wire.

[competentone]

Originally Posted by red-beard

I'm glad to see we're on the Nickel standard.

Back about 20-30 years ago, this problem came up with pennies. They changed the ratio of copper-zinc from 90/10 to 10/90

They took the copper out of pennies in 1982. (It was actually a copper-zinc ratio of 95/5; today's pennies are 2.5/97.5.

You can still find plenty of pre-1982 pennies -- which has now caused me to change my plans. I'm going to convert all my assets into pre-1982 pennies and instantly double my net worth!

(I just told my wife about my new plan and she still isn't impressed -- some people just don't understand "genius.")

[BlueSkyJaunte]

Nickel-steel
Nickel-silver

I think it's also used as a pre-chrome coating in some applications.

[Aerkuld]

It's used as an anti-oxidation plating on all sorts of things, like bolts for example...

[mattdavis11]

On the a/c theft, the dumb criminals steal the condensor, the smart ones take the copper lines from the outside to inside units.

[competentone]

Originally Posted by Wayne at Pelican Parts

What is Nickel used for anyways? If I recall, I think it may be used in various alloys like steel or aluminum, but I can't recall.

Wikipedia:

Applications

Nickel is used in many industrial and consumer products, including stainless steel, magnets, coinage, and special alloys. It is also used for plating and as a green tint in glass. Nickel is pre-eminently an alloy metal, and its chief use is in the nickel steels and nickel cast irons, of which there are innumberable varieties. It is also widely used for many other alloys, such as nickel brasses and bronzes, and alloys with copper, chromium, aluminum, lead, cobalt, silver, and gold.

Nickel consumption can be summarized as: nickel steels (60%), nickel-copper alloys and nickel silver (14%), malleable nickel, nickel clad and Inconel (9%), plating (6%), nickel cast irons (3%), heat and electric resistance alloys (3%), nickel brasses and bronzes (2%), others (3%).

In the laboratory, nickel is frequently used as a catalyst for hydrogenation, most often using Raney nickel, a finely divided form of the metal.

With nickel at about $13.50/lb, it is good to save any scrap metal with significant nickel content.

[competentone]

Originally Posted by red-beard

Recently, there have been a lot of thefts of air conditioning units for the copper inside.The stupid thieves do not understand that:

1. The condensor coils are aluminum....

Actually, a lot of the older (and higher quality units) have used copper for their coils. I've seen thieves steal the copper units and leave the aluminum ones at offices with multiple units.

[TheMentat]

Originally Posted by competentone

The value of the nickel and copper in a nickel coin is worth six and one-half cents, based upon the most recent prices for the metals.

I think I'm going to convert all my assets into nickels and create an instant 30% increase in my net worth!

(When I explained my intentions to my wife, she didn't seem very impressed. I guess she just can't see the brilliance of my plan!)

Your wife probably realizes that with your significant net worth, you'd surely collapse the spread before fully implementing the trade!

[snowman]

I had to evict some non paying tenants a couple of months back. The house has a large carriage house in back, about an 8 car garage equivalent. I found wire insulation stripping s about a foot deep over the entire carriage house and over much of the 10,000 sq foot back yard. He must have made a bunch of money from all that wire, unfortunately he never gave a penny to me in rent.

[pwd72s]

Originally Posted by snowman

I had to evict some non paying tenants a couple of months back. The house has a large carriage house in back, about an 8 car garage equivalent. I found wire insulation stripping s about a foot deep over the entire carriage house and over much of the 10,000 sq foot back yard. He must have made a bunch of money from all that wire, unfortunately he never gave a penny to me in rent.

Now you know why I'll never be a landlord again. Just one of those things the "invest in real estate" guys never mention...

[WolfeMacleod]

Originally Posted by Porsche-O-Phile

Copper is very expensive right now -

Heeze. don't I know it. I just bought 20 pounds of 42awg wire, and the price of copper is driving the wire prices through the roof. Going to drive me into the poorhouse.

And on Nickel, one use is for plating guitar parts. We like nickel.

[tabs]

[QUOTE=Dan in Pasadena;3459094]

some of the future Supreme Court Justices and Nobel Laureates that live in Nickerson Gardens had gone on a spree over the weekend and cut down several THOUSAND feet of catenary with hacksaws QUOTE]


Maybe if ya hit with some of that juice maybe they might actually become SCJs an NLs. I just love that story...

[JeremyD]

Bizarre - but one of my offices in lakeland just had the outside AC units (2) stolen - from the roof - strip center - for the copper - and the condensor motors - what a b!tch.

[john70t]

Locally, there was recently a spat of catalytic converters cut off delivery trucks in the yard.