Will the enduring Lincoln cent make it to its 100th year of production????? The short answer is clearly yes even if only as a proof coin in proof and/or mint sets.  In 2009, less than three years away, Victor D. Brenner's design will turn 100.  The Lincoln cent has already shattered longevity records for North American coinage.  The Lincoln cent replaced a long running design, the stunningly beautiful Indian Head cent (1859-1909).  Even the long running silver Seated Liberty coinage only ran for 54 years.   I do however believe the demise of the humble Lincoln is at hand and it is economics that will spell the end of the cent and quite probably all coinage before the year 2025.  It is simply more cost effective to have a debit system and virtual money instead of actual coinage.  Simply put, it costs more to produce coinage than it is worth and the yearly loss absorbed by the U.S. Treasury annually is staggering.  Also, coinage produced today is only a representation of outmoded economics.  For example, the dime intrinsically (actual metallic value) is less than the five cent nickel, but in the past before 1965, when the dime was made of 90% silver it was worth more.  The coinage of the last 40+ years is based on "assigned value" meaning in short, so long as the government is solvent, the clad dime will be worth more than the nickel.  Where does this leave "Mr. Lincoln"?  Probably the first to go.  In recent years there has been a great deal of proposed legislation to discontinue the cent and to "round off" all change making transactions to increments of fives making the nickel the lowest denomination coin.  I believe that more likely all coinage in a very few short years will along with circulating paper money be eliminated in favor of a credit/debit system.  Regardless, it won't be easy to simply "sweep" away the Lincoln cent.  In just the last 25 years there have been nearly 300 billion cents struck!!!  In less than any 10 of the last 30 years of production there have been more Lincoln cents struck than all of Canada's combined coinage of all denominations in the 139 years of that beautiful country!!!!!!!!  Even if production were halted tomorrow, it would take many years for full reclaimation of this coin.  I still think the Lincoln cent will indeed make it to its 100th birthday, but much beyond that is very unlikely.

THANK YOU  .......DANNY ANABLE  THE " CANADA COIN NUT " AUGUST, 2006