magnetic change messes up parking meters and vending machines. just ask nz.
you can file off one side of pennies, and with the help of a little vinegar or lemon juice make a zinc copper battery, a stack batter if you need to power a device.
But a compass built into a coin pretty much guarantees I won’t have a compass when I need it, because I will have accidentally spent it one day when I’m 5 cents short for a cup of coffee.
Besides, the poles could switch any minute now and that coin will be pointing South-- what good is that?
/s
Is this a counterfeit nickel? Because I seem to recall US nickels haven’t been pure nickel in a very long time.
EDIT: Ever. Thank you wiki!
absolutely no problem - after 250000 years (+/-) your compass will be working again!
I’m much more impressed by the Canadian quarters that created fears of espionage.
Carry a couple of different currencies, “remains from trips”, “memorabilia”, “i don’t even remember where I got this one”. One of them as a compass, another one can be a hollow coin with a SD-card sized storage space or with a survival saw stored within, others as harmless decoys to play with.
And for only $24 dollars, you can have your own nickel! Sheesh
Or, if used incorrectly, this nickel could take your life.
Yeah, but how much do magnets cost? Millions of dollars! What a savings! Especially since we have no idea how they work, you think you can just take a magnet and rub it against some steel and make a new magnet? No!
Seems like it always points to Canada…
The True South!
@Michael_Borys, you need to associate your BBS account with your Boing Boing CMS account so that your stories don’t show up as being authored by boingboing (and looking like paid content).
Grid to mag, add.
##This nickel could save your life by deflecting a bullet!*
####Small caliber only.
#####Shot very precisely into the coin and not two centimeters to the side.
######Ok, this won’t work at all. Stupid nickel.
Could many nickels be overlaid like scale mail?
Looks like they also have a euro version which would be a little harder to accidentally spend - in the US anyway.
Roscoe W. Chandler (Louis Sorin): The nickel today is not what it used to be ten years ago.
Captain Spaulding (Groucho): Well, I’ll go further than that. I’ll get off at the depot. The nickel today is not what it was fifteen years ago. Do you know what this country needs today?
Chandler: What?
Spaulding: A seven cent nickel. Yes siree, we’ve been using the five-cent nickel in this country since 1492. Now that’s pretty near 100 years daylight saving. Now why not give the seven cent nickel a chance? If that works out, next year we can have an eight cent nickel. Think what that would mean? You could go to a newsstand, buy a three cent newspaper, and get the same nickel back again. One nickel carefully used would last a family a life-time.
Yes, but at what cost?
A couple nickels plus some work?
