What happens when a key expires?

[Jean-David Beyer]

My key looks like this:

pub  1024D/9A2FC99A 2001-09-22 Jean-David Beyer (Institute for
Regimented Whimsey) <jdbeyer@jdbeyer.exit109.com>
sub  1024g/EEF02424 2001-09-22 [expires: 2002-09-22]

I expect that a little before 2002-09-22 comes around, I will make a new
1024g key to replace EEF02424 and export it to some keyservers. But what
happens to the e-mails I have received (assuming I have kept them) that
have been encoded with EEF02424? I would not want people sending me new
email with EEF02424 after that key expires, and I suppose they will not.
But will I still be able to read the old e-mails (provided I do not
delete it from my private keyring)?

-- 
 .~.  Jean-David Beyer           Registered Linux User 85642.
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