Andrew Bary

In the early 1960s, Warren Buffett made a shrewd move to buy silver because he thought the U.S. wouldn't find it economically viable to mint silver coins any longer.

At the time, dimes, quarters, and half-dollars were 90% silver -- and the metal, or melt value, of the coins was close to their face value. Buffett turned out to be right because silver prices rose and the government stopped issuing 90% silver coins in 1965.

Today, a Buffett imitator is claiming that he is doing the same thing with nickels. Kyle Mitchell posted on X that he has purchased $250,000 in nickels -- some five million of the five-cent coins -- in a bet that the U.S. will change the composition of nickels, which is 75% copper and 25% nickel.

The current metal value in a nickel is six cents, with copper trading around $10,000 a metric ton and nickel at $15,000 a metric ton. Each nickel weighs five grams. It cost the U.S. mint 14 cents to make a nickel in fiscal 2024, including the metal value and production costs, according to the mint's annual report.

In his post, which has nearly 10 million views, Mitchell refers to silver in the 1960s.

"Most people would call me insane. But let me explain the thesis," h e tweeted.

"It's an asymmetrical bet that the U.S. Mint will eventually debase the coinage again, that metal scarcity and inflation will continue to erode the dollar and that a bag of nickels will one day be worth more dead than alive."

In a worst-case scenario, Mitchell said he would have $250,000 in U.S. coins. Barron's hasn't been able to contact Mitchell.

Mitchell tweeted that he had room to store all the nickels, which weigh 25 million grams, or about 55,000 pounds -- 27.5 tons.

The problems with a nickel accumulation strategy abound: the sheer weight of the coins, storage challenges, and the inability to melt down the nickels because it's against the law.

And it's hard to amass a lot of nickels. Banks don't generally carry more than $50 or $100 of them.

For 19 years, the U.S. mint has spend more to more to produce nickels than their face value. Still, Congress hasn't been willing to change the metal composition.

Right now, the nickel is the only minted U.S. coin whose metal value is more than its face value. It was worth close to a dime in metal when nickel prices peaked at $50,000 a metric ton in 2022.

Mitchell's nickel accumulation shows what happens when the government makes uneconomic financial decisions.

Given the constraints on accumulating nickels, it's hard, however, to make a lot of money with his strategy.

Write to Andrew Bary at andrew.bary@barrons.com

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October 21, 2025 14:09 ET (18:09 GMT)

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