BIG change?.........................

I saw this short article in the December issue (page 24) of Smart Money, and wanted to share it with you. Writen by: Russell Pearlman, the article is below:

What was the fastest way to earn 33 percent in 2006? Investing in hedge funds? Certainly not the stock market - even after the fall rebound, the market hasn't come close. And loan sharking is still illegal. Turns out the best investment of 2006 was heading to your local bank and buying rolls of U.S. nickles.
Thanks to high commodity prices, the metals in a nickle are now worth 6.6 cents. An enterprising coin collector could, in theory, melt down 1.25 grams of nickel in the 5-cent coin and sell them on the spot-metels market for 6.6 cents. (Yes, it's legal, though not encouraged.) Melt enough coins, and the profits amount to a lot more than pocket change.
There are some costs attached to that investing strategy, though. For one, hiring a blast furnace to seperate the metals isn't cheap. Coinstar handled 3.8 billion coins in 2005 through its coin-counting machines often found at supermarkets, but it hasn't tried to capitalize on the phenomenon. The cost of melting down, 123,000 tons of coins outweighs the gains from the higher metal prices, says Coinstar company spokesperson George White. Coinstar distributes its coin horde to firms such as Brinks, which recyle the coins back into circulation. Brinks declines to comment.
This year the U.S. mint says it will spend $108 million to produce 1.7 billion nickles with a combined face value of just $85 million. The mint has changed U.S. coinage based on metal prices before, taking the silver out of coins in the 1960s after the price of silver skyrocketed. But, so far, there are no plans to make a nickle out of something cheaper - like plastic.

My first thought, after reading this, was it must have been a slow news month for this to make the editing process. Are we better people for having obtained this knowledge? Leave it to the government to spend $108 million for goods worth only $85 million.

My second thought, was to remember when stores and coin machines had a problem with taking Canadian money, as "it wasn't worth as much as U.S money." Big deal, banks gave it out for equal value, why rig the machines to recognize and reject it? What do you think would happen if you took this article to those same stores and told them you wanted 6.6 cents worth for your nickle? Yup, I think they would tell you they didn't really care what you wanted, that you were only getting what they gave you, 5 cents worth.

My big thought was, this really proves that value is something that varies, depending on people buying into the idea. How much would Coinstar have to profit in order for them to decide it was worth melting down all those nickles, leaving the rest of us scambling to find change for a dime? Why do diamonds cost more than other jems? Because our culture places a higher value on them, no doubt an idea that was started long ago by someone that was either famous in their time or a great marketer. New, young, hip, are in, while old, old, and old fashioned are out. Why does our society veiw one as more valuable than the other? (And for the record, I vote for old, old, and old fashioned all the time. It saves me a ton of nickels, literally!)

Trends and fads will come and go, nickles will go up and down in value, but make sure you have firm sound values that you can pass on to future generations regarding what is really important to you. In the end, this is all that matters.