A weekend world hack should be on the lighter side right? Even someone dedicated to world domination should keep some time for hobbies and fun. The artificial borders, laws, and values made by governments and people are often low hanging fruit for a good world hack. About 8 years ago Canadian dollars were worth around 60 cents of a United States dollar. Every once in a while Canadian quarters show up in U.S. Change. Back before coinstar machines showed up all over, most people cashed in large stacks of coins at their local bank. In all the cases I remember, they accepted the Canadian quarters, nickels, dimes, and pennies at their U.S. face value. British coins were spit out by the counting machine and returned to you. I saw opportunity, since theoretically you could sprinkle lower-value Canadian coins in with regular U.S. change and get full U.S. value for them! I calculated all of the variables and found that a profit could be made, but it would take some serious work. Tons of change needs to be moved after all! Literally! Due to events beyond my control, the plan did not work out.
A similar situation existed with U.S. nickels recently. I'll have to run the numbers again to get my loyal readers the exact details, but nickels in the United States have more value in their metal than they do as currency. Of course, it is illegal to melt nickels to get the nickel out, but that is not the point. You don't need to melt the coins down to make hoarding them a good deal. In 1964, U.S. quarters, dimes, fifty-cent coins, and dollar coins were all made of silver. In 1965, they started making the coins out of cheaper metals so that the coins wouldn't have value apart from their face-value as currency. Look how much a pre-1965 quarter in terrible condition is worth today! You didn't need to go crazy and melt down silver quarters to realize the benefit. You just needed to wait. It is little decisions like this that turn routine bureaucracy into your benefit.
So, the weekend world hack, as a general outline, is to hoard nickels. The worst case scenario is that in a few years time your nickels will only be worth 5 cents each! At best, you will be holding on to coins that inflation has made even more valuable. A silver quarter is worth over $4 at current prices. A coin that contains more than its face value in metal is an excellent hedge against inflation. Even if hard currency is banned, you still will own a pile of scrap metal that is worth more than you paid.
What do you do with all of the nickels? That is the important question, since storage is the only issue that remotely could prevent this idea from being practical. Check out the insane hobby of coin stacking! Good luck with this world hack, and I hope your floors and shelves survive!
In addition to cool stacks of nickels, you can truly be the only guy who really "has a nickel for every time I heard ..."
Ok, I ran the numbers and a nickel is not as lucrative investment as it once was. Still, at current prices, a nickel contains about 5.04 cents worth of metal! Don't melt them down, since that will probably cost more to produce the heat than you would make in profit. Just try getting a fair shake with a scrap metal dealer within 1% of spot price!