What If The US Stopped Production Of Pennies?

Coins that retain their original red color, I would indeed expect to increase in numismatic value over time, but my point was that there really aren't that many "original red color" Zincolns out there, relative to their overall mintage numbers, and most of them that are, have already been pulled. But, even though there aren't that many compared to total mintages, there are still a bunch from a numismatic-value standpoint. Let's say the government came out today and announced that Cent production would cease on December 31, 2011. Well, as far as coins 2010 and older go, it's already extremely rare to encounter one of them in the wild without at least some spotting or other problems. I'd venture to say that virtually all pre-2011 cents that are still problem-free are already out of circulation. And this is rapidly also becoming the case for 2011 cents as well. Now, let's take 2008 cents for an example. According to my quick research, there were somewhat more than 5 billion of these minted, combining Denver and Philadelphia figures together. Now, lets say that only 0.1 percent, or 1 coin out of every 1000, of those were saved in "original-red" condition. That still means that there are 5 million of those coins out there. Based on numbers like that, I find it hard to believe that a 2008 cent, regardless of condition, will ever be particularly valuable. And one could make the same case about any cent from the last 20 or so years. Now, maybe a saving rate of 1 out of 1000 is too generous. That's certainly possible. But I just can't imagine that, even 50 years from now, a 2008 Zincoln will be worth much.

And this situation for pre-2011 cents would be the same whether or not cent production would cease this year, or next year, or whenever.