James,
You will have soon received a flat rate Priority Mail box containing $150 in nickels (inside a thick cardboard reinforcement liner) that I sent you. I sent you those coins for two reasons:
One: I should have been a [voluntary] Ten Cent Challenge subscriber, starting from back when I began reading SurvivalBlog in 2008. The nickels cover not only the past three years, but also pre-pay my subscription for the next year, too.
Two: Last week my local bank finally cut me off (and other bank patrons, too), from buying more than one roll [of nickels] at a time. You were right: “The window of opportunity is closing.” In the summer of 2008, shortly after I started reading your blog and your novel, I started buying $40 in nickels (rolled) every time I went to the bank. I work just two blocks from the bank, so it was real easy to do on my lunch hour. The tellers must have thought that I’m in the vending machine business. Now, about 200-odd trips to the bank later, I now have accumulated more than $8K face [value] in nickels. So that one small box of nickels (soon to arrive) is just my small way of saying “thanks” for the heads-up on nickels.
They are all now in ammo cans (following your advice), forming a very imposing wall in my “Hidey Room” that my wife teases me about. I also have about 30 cans of ammunition–assorted calibers, lined up on the opposite wall in there. She says that both [the nickels and the ammunition] will give us protection not just from the soon-coming hyperinflation, but also incoming small arms fire and gamma ray radiation! That stack of 42 ammo cans (holding $188 face [value of nickels] in each can) is so darn heavy that I only feel safe with it on a [concrete] slab floor. I estimate that it weighs about 1.5 tons! Without the advance warning on coming events that you provided, there is no way that I would have “beat the rush” on nickels.
I was born much too late (1966) to get any silver coins at face value. But thanks to you, I’ve been getting nickels with a built-in 40% return, but costing me just face value!
OBTW, I have no doubt that there will be a “by the bag” bullion market for nickels within a couple of years, regardless of any change in the current “no melting” law. People recognize true value, and they always price it, accordingly. Just like you, I’m amazed at the rapid and fluid reaction of a free market.
With My Thanks, – Karl H. (A Comfortable 70 Miles From Green Bay)