anyone know of a good resource that i could see how much lets say a 1909 wheat penny was worth in 1950 and how much it is worth today.
I have research like this before. This is one reason to have a collection of Red Books! You can track values back to 1947.
And for more accurate figures, all of the Coin Dealer Newsletters since 1963 are available on the Newman Numismatic Portal (up to maybe the past year or so)
That would definitely be the best bet as everything else is wildly inaccurate. Except perhaps actual realized price auction records.