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My wife and I bought dozens of boxes of Cheerios in 2000 in hopes of finding one of the 5500 Sacagawea Dollars along with one of the 10,000,000 cents included in the cereal as a US Mint Promotion. I saved the cents and still have 15 or so in the Cheerios packaging. Then, at last, we got the two-coin prize, I put it in a drawer with hopes that someday they might be worth something. You know, may $25-$50.
Twelve years later my wife found the dust-covered package and asked if it was really worth more than a dollar and cent. When I read about the detailed tailfeather design and that the coins were selling at auction for thousands of dollars, we couldn't believe our luck! I held on to the coins for another seven years before they were sent to PCGS and then sold through Heritage Auctions.
For those that don't know what the change was, the mint decided the eagle's white tail was too dark on the coin, so they removed the detailed lines on the tailfeathers to better represent the true image of a Bald Eagle. No one at the mint caught that 5500 coins had been struck in October of 1999 for the General Mills Cheerios promotion using dies that were different than the ones used for the later circulation strikes, thus creating the rare 'Cheerios' die variety. Only about 200 of the 5500 Cheerios Dollars minted have been certified by the Third-Party Grading companies.
The dollar graded PCGS MS67 "Cheerios" Dollar FS-902 (Cert #37217371) and the cent was graded as PCGS MS66RD "Cheerios" Cent (Cert #37217372) and both coins sold for $4200 at Heritage Auctions in 2019.
Twelve years later my wife found the dust-covered package and asked if it was really worth more than a dollar and cent. When I read about the detailed tailfeather design and that the coins were selling at auction for thousands of dollars, we couldn't believe our luck! I held on to the coins for another seven years before they were sent to PCGS and then sold through Heritage Auctions.
For those that don't know what the change was, the mint decided the eagle's white tail was too dark on the coin, so they removed the detailed lines on the tailfeathers to better represent the true image of a Bald Eagle. No one at the mint caught that 5500 coins had been struck in October of 1999 for the General Mills Cheerios promotion using dies that were different than the ones used for the later circulation strikes, thus creating the rare 'Cheerios' die variety. Only about 200 of the 5500 Cheerios Dollars minted have been certified by the Third-Party Grading companies.
The dollar graded PCGS MS67 "Cheerios" Dollar FS-902 (Cert #37217371) and the cent was graded as PCGS MS66RD "Cheerios" Cent (Cert #37217372) and both coins sold for $4200 at Heritage Auctions in 2019.
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