This is an awsome post, I'm not sure if you are aware but the penny is no longer being made in Canada, everything is rounded up now unless you pay by creditcard or debit card, cash is in 5 cents rather than cents now.
There are some projects that explicitly call for the penny though. so I have a stash of a few just in case I ever need some.
IMO unless you are into exclusive trade of rare coins, not which will be much value in a major collapse, only collect coins for "actual usefulness" while the system of currency will likely remain relatively the same initially, things will resort to barter in a collapse context and coins will only have their melt value, not that it could ever happen but hell who knows. None the less you can definitely make money off commodities, lots of people making money off of silver coinage etc..
I'm really surpised about the nickle, but I do support it, very few things cost under 10 cents these days regardless, not the age of 1 cent candies anymore.
While coinage can hold more value than paper currency what are you trying to buy, what can the coin be made into?
There are a whole lot of pennies and nickles in circulation so they would be easy to implement as a currency but sadly they have very little actual value and are not easily transported.
Would I rather have pennies than bills in a bartering society, yes most likely but even toilet paper can hold a lot of value. Making metal is harder than making paper though.
But generally it is usually illegal to melt your currency.. that is why you can't make money off of it. but if you could then with inflation it could be a long term investment, but for the next 10 to 20 years no it will not be a good thing to buy into, except for some silver coins. or older bullion that is rare and not the same.
metal is a commodity you will probably have a better chance of return on pure metals than currency melts, and unless you can manufacture that pure metal into something useful your return may be limited with maybe $1/year to $5/year per ounce, rare earth metals can see higher returns but the cost more.
Unless you are trading in name only then there will be shipping and processing fees for return on small quantities can be meager, but generally if inflation and relative currency value loss is low then you can see modest return on investment, but other sources can be better, but IMO you should try to get what you need first and speculate later.
http://www.kitco.com/charts/liveplatinum.html
example are pennies easier to meltdown for bullet than a copper bar or wire?
is pure lead more valued due to its nature than gold? what would I use gold for if no one else needed it? etc.. ask yourself these question and acquiring commodities should be self evident, example a hunk of limestone may be more valued to your locality than gold if you need to grow your own food.
Bear in mind destruction of currency is generally illegal, and I think the SS manages this stuff small quantities may not attract attention but if you are doing this for real money the SS could get on your case.
http://www.coinflation.com/
USC 18.17
http://uscode.house.gov/download/pls/18C17.txt
