Thanks to inflation, the humble nickel has great value from its Ni content. As of today, a Jefferson nickel is worth $0.054; by contrast, a Washington quarter is only worth $0.048, making it king of the pocket change.
One of the greatest disasters of our modern era of banker bailouts, stimulus packages and expansionary monetary policies is that not only has our currency been massively devalued, but Americans have almost no conception whatsoever of what real wealth is. Gresham’s Law tells us that “Bad money drives out good under legal tender laws.” Our entire society is effectively based on debt, with a form of financial feudalism in place. Today, only a few Americans are actually aware of how extreme our monetary situation is, but to illustrate the precipice we stand on, allow me to submit for your consideration a hypothetical scenario.
Let’s say that a certain five year old living in Oahu decides that he is tired of being left out of all the fun and games, and like his fellow friends and classmates, would like a Nintendo Wii