$1,000,000 in nickels

A hedge fund operator, Kyle Bass, bought 1 million bucks in nickels. He figures each nickel is worth 6.8 cents. I have hoarded nickels too, but I only have a hundred bucks or so.

The question is always, "how does one cash in when melting US coins is illegal?" Good question. Bass points out that when a currency is revalued the coins are usually not changed. So if the US were to make new dollars worth say 10 old dollars nickel hoarders would win big. 20 old nickels buys a new dollar. But the new dollar is worth 10 old dollars. Cha-Ching!

The follow-up question is "when will the US revalue the dollar?" I'm thinking that won't happen unless there is hyper-inflation. So my hoarding spare change that I would otherwise spend turns into a tiny hedge against an improbable event. I am not sure if Kyle thinks a million is spare change or not. Anyway he may have some other idea on cashing in on the arbitrage (a nickel being worth 6.8 cents).