Meilah, Chapter 3, Mishnah 2. This chapter continues to map out the cases in which consecrated items are not subject to me'ilah, and here the Mishnah turns to money rather than to an animal or an object: coins that a nazir set aside to purchase his korbanot.
Some background: a nazir who reaches the end of his nezirut owes three offerings, a chatat, an olah and a shelamim. Our case is a nazir who consecrated money toward those offerings, and the Mishnah asks how the laws of me'ilah apply to such coins.
Money set aside without specification
"Hamafrish ma'ot linezirato": a nazir separated coins to be used for the korbanot of his nezirut, without saying which coins were designated for which korban. The ruling is "lo nehenin velo mo'alin," one may not derive benefit from this money, yet if a person did derive benefit from it he has not transgressed me'ilah on a Torah level.
The Mishnah supplies the reason: the coins are "re'uyin lavo kulan shelamim," meaning that every last one of them could legitimately be spent on the shelamim. Because the nazir never tied a particular coin to a particular korban, any coin in the pile might turn out to be the one that buys the shelamim. And a shelamim is kodashim kalim, which at this point in the process do not fall under me'ilah, so the whole sum is exempt along with it.
The nazir died and the coins were unspecified
"Met, hayu setumim, yiplu linedavah." Should the nazir die leaving coins that were setumim, that is, coins he never earmarked korban by korban, the money is deposited in the kupah reserved in the Mikdash for public free-will offerings.
A word about those kupot: several such collection boxes stood in the azarah, and people would drop into them money they had sanctified or pledges they still owed. Certain ones were designated for nedavah, and their contents went toward korbanot brought up on the mizbe'ach at any time when it would otherwise be idle.
One might have raised an objection here. The standing rule is that funds earmarked for a chatat or for a shelamim cannot be diverted toward purchasing an olah, and part of this money was in fact intended for a chatat and part for a shelamim, so the same restriction ought to govern. The resolution is a received tradition going back to Sinai (halachah le-Moshe mi-Sinai): where the nazir left the coins' purpose unstated, they may indeed go toward the communal voluntary olot.
The nazir died and the coins were specified
"Hayu meforashim": if he had spelled out his intentions, assigning one portion of the coins to the olah, a second to the chatat and a third to the shelamim, then each portion is governed by its own halachah.
"Demei chatat yelchu leYam Hamelach." The coins designated for the chatat are cast into the Dead Sea. This parallels the law of a chatat whose owner died, which is left to die. Here too, the money is in effect put to death, thrown into the Yam Hamelach so that it can never be put to any use again.
Regarding this money the Mishnah adds, "lo nehenin velo mo'alin bahen." One may not benefit from it, but one who does is not liable for me'ilah, because this money is slated for destruction rather than for the purchase of a korban, and it no longer carries the status of kodshei Hashem. The prohibition against benefiting from it remains in force on a rabbinic level.
"Demei olah yavi'u olah." The portion earmarked for the olah is used by the heirs to bring an olah, and as long as that olah has not yet been purchased, these coins are subject to me'ilah. An olah is not a korban of atonement in the way a chatat is; it is a gift presented to Hashem, and a gift of that sort can still be offered on a person's behalf by his heirs after his death.
"U'demei shelamim yavi'u shelamim." The same holds for the portion earmarked for the shelamim: his heirs purchase a shelamim with it, for a shelamim, no less than an olah, can be offered by a man's descendants once he is gone.
The Mishnah closes with two points about that shelamim. "Vene'echalin leyom echad": its meat may be eaten for a single day, following the rule of a nazir's shelamim. "Ve'ein te'unin lechem": yet it comes without the loaves that normally accompany it. A nazir's shelamim is ordinarily brought together with special breads, and the nazir holds them while the tenufah, the waving, is performed. With the nazir no longer alive to take hold of them and wave them, this shelamim is offered with no bread at all.