Your Opinion Of The Future Of US Penny Values

Pretty much agree with halfamind--likely a modest bump, then a settling.

Does anyone know what happened in Canada when they stopped minting the cent?

As someone who has avidly gotten into collecting Lincoln cents, particularly the wheats, I hope it doesn't affect too much. I bought my first expensive purchase, the 1909-S, which cost me nearly 100 dollars. I am also eyeing up the 1931-S and 1914-D in the future, but I will be pretty limited in terms of budget if the prices go up a lot more than they already are.

The 1931-S on ebay seems to average around 100+ dollars.
1914-D seems to average around 150+ dollars.

Thats quite a lot for me. Lol.

I doubt values will change much. The pre-Zincolns will see appreciation as copper rises in value. The Zincolns will linger until there is some sort of alloy recovery program. Since they will continue to be legal tender, they will be spendable in groups of 5 even when most businesses are rounding.

In practical terms, some of it comes down to how people view the items after either production is stopped or they are demonetized, bearing in mind those are two rather different things. While one cent coins are barely worth anything anyway in the US, whether in terms of purchasing power or metal content, as a collectible item it's hard to imagine any year/mintage over a billion coins ever accruing much value, with the exception of specimen pieces, be they errors or just really high grade pieces. But as long as they remain "money", they'll be floating about the place anyway.

New Zealand is an interesting example as even demonetised coins can be redeemed through the Reserve Bank:
https://www.rbnz.govt.nz/money-and-...-or-old-cash

And that includes before the move to dollars and cents in 1967, so we're talking pounds, shillings and pence. And that can possibly even include pre-NZ coinage, which prior to the early 1930s meant British coins. Apparently that can be more of a battle, and would be foolish in numismatic terms much of the time, or in terms of PMs as quite a few were sterling silver up through 1920 or so.

As it is, older coins are available on the local online auction site, as well as at local auction houses. Accumulations of older coins will come up, and go for anything to scrap up to something approaching numismatic value, or even exceeding it if people don't know what they're doing. Kind of the same story everywhere on that last point. One and Two Cent coins in particular seem to be in good supply, as are pre-decimal coins, so the pre-1967 stuff.

Likewise, when they introduced the one and two dollar coin in the early 90s they phased out the one and two dollar notes. I hope the US comes to its senses and elimiates the dollar note sooner or later. In any case, those old notes can similarly be traded in for modern money. Those notes remain collectable and come up at auction often as well. Anyone under the age of 40 would probably give you a funny look if you tried to present one. In saying that, I get funny looks in the US when I try and spend a Kennedy half.

For Memorial Lincoln cents, I think the only coins that will develop a healthy premium (ir have already) are true uncirculated gems from MS68 - 70 or for some years MS66 and higher. Why? First the zircoins produced since 1983 are far more prone to rotting and poor toning than the prior bronze ones. Also if one has ever gotton an older uncirculated roll of zircoins form the bank you will find how spotted they become - to the point they are not worth keeping. You can get fresh rolls and when you find one not scratched or with a few spots then I would clean with mild soap and distilled water folloed by a quick dip in acetone. And (I know I will get critcised for this), but spraying foam cleaner (ammonia based) onto a cloth and soaking the coin for a few minutes seems to help with retarding any further development of spots for at least the medium term. Note, I do not recommend the aforementioned cleaning methods for truly valuable numismatic items.

Another area you can obtain gem cents (although not entirely guaranteed) are purchaing Mint sets. The added bonus is sales of these have been declining for decades and final sales total usually anywhere from 200,000 - 350,000. Not bad. But to find gems you would have to buy several sets to search.

Pre- Memorial cents will have their premiums rise far more slowly and mainly for uncirculated ones with only a few exceptions (keydates, rare errors).

I don't disagree with you.

But in order for there to be many people collecting the rare high grades I believe the lower end Gems will have to fall under mass demand. It is from this pool a demand for the rarities above can emerge.

I believe this is where the real opportunity exists. The high grades are rare and cost a lot of money to acquire. Profits are limited to an order of magnitude. But Gems can be acquired for pennies and can be nearly as scarce.