NICKEL IS HERE TO STAY — FOR NOW.

1 IT’S NOT BEING RETIRED — YET An internal federal analysis shows the government has studied the pros and cons of the nickel — but Ottawa insists it has no plans to force the five-cent coin into retirement, as it did the penny in 2013. Perhaps that’s because it’s still cost-effective to mint it — and it may even become profitable, according to the analysis. Royal Canadian Mint spokesman Alex Reeves confirmed in an email that “the cost of manufacturing a fivecent circulation coin remains well below its face value.”

2 NOT REALLY NICKEL The coin got its name because, at one time, it was made almost entirely of nickel. Today, it’s mostly steel with a bit of copper and nickel plating.

3 A LONG LIFE The nickel entered circulation in 1858, when the Royal Mint in Britain produced them for the province of Canada. The Royal Canadian Mint started pumping out five-cent pieces in 1908 — and has since made 5.55 billion of them.

4 CHUMP CHANGE The nickel’s purchasing power has tumbled 40 per cent over the past 25 years, said the study, which was prepared for deputy finance minister Paul Rochon. More than a century ago — in 1914 — the nickel was worth more than a loonie in today’s terms, it said.

5 NEVER SAY NEVER New Zealand and South Africa both jettisoned their nickels during the past decade, the analysis notes. However, Ottawa “has no plans to discontinue the nickel,” Finance spokesman David Barnabe wrote in an email. But some predict otherwise. “The time will come when the nickel will have to be taken out of circulation,” Hendrix Vachon, a senior economist with Desjardins, wrote in a study in May.