Mr. Rawles,
To follow up on the recent posts about sorting Canadian nickels, I recently stumbled across a web site that has pictures of all Canadian nickels from 1870 until 2005.
After sorting close to $100 worth of nickels, I can say the vast majority of non-debased nickels span between around 1960 to 1999. Of those, most of the pre-1982 nickels are 99% nickel and have a melt value approximately 1.5x it’s face value.
All nickels from 1982 to 1999 have a copper-nickel composition similar to that of the US nickel, and a melt value currently very close to the face value.
One subtle kicker is that Canadian nickels minted between 2000 and 2003 are a mix of fully debased steel nickels and copper-nickel nickels of the same composition and appearance as the 1982-1999 series. They can be differentiated by the “P” beneath the portrait of the Queen indicating the fully debased ones.
The 2006 and later nickels are very similar in appearance to the 2003 series of nickels, only they have the Royal Canadian Mint symbol on them beneath the Queen’s portrait.
It is quite rare to find a nickel older than 1950, and of all the nickels I’ve sorted, approximately half are fully debased. This should really underscore the critical importance, especially for your American audience, to load the boat on non-debased currency before the government/banks flood the market with counterfeit currency [and sorting becomes necessary.] – L.N. in Canada