2009 was a low year for nickels, 1.2b coins is more typical http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Mint_coin_production http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United

2009 was a low year for nickels, 1.2b coins is more typical http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Mint_coin_production http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Mint_coin_product... Still if coins stayed in circulation 20 years, $1b is same order of magnitude as all the nickels in circulation. If anything, $3-4 in nickels per American seems on the high side, unless there are a lot of full coin jars.