Also, Epic's method works fine even if the password begins with the $ or % character:

//echo -a $+($,version) and $+(%,variable)

You could also use $eval to prevent a password being evaluated: //echo -a $eval( $passwordstring ,0)

And, while it is true that you have your password be given to nickserv while connecting to the server, by including it in the serverlist entry, I have encountered networks in the past where services frequently died and restarted, where they immediately demanded everyone's password again, forcing everyone into a guestnick if they didn't send their password again.