That's fascinating! Nickel is a "war-time" metal, demand usually goes up when nations are army building. Interesting that China was buying nickel metal. The US "nickel" only has 25% nickel and the rest copper, so I don't know why they're called a "nickel". It was the first non silver coin in the US (besides the penny), so I think the name was an attempt to created demand for an unusual metal for it's time. Nickel was still pretty rare at the turn of the century, but it's very common today.

I wonder if the Bolivar can still be found these days, or if they're all melted down!