How Cheerios cents were put inside boxes of cereal

CaptHenway

Just for posterity, here is how the Cheerios cents were placed inside boxes of Cheerios. The sealed cent holder was placed inside the plastic bag that held the cereal inside the cardboard box.

I can only assume that the two-coin dollar and cent packages were sealed within the plastic bags the same way.

I have no financial interest in this eBay offering and do not plan on bidding for it if anybody wants to go after it.

Jzyskowski1

Thank you sir. Sharing your tid bits of knowledge is very welcome in my world. Appreciate it and look forward to seeing more. 🤠👍🏼

tommy44

Interesting post. Cheerios is my favorite cereal, I wonder what the ones in that bag would taste like after 23 years. Would the cent qualify for a "first box" label?

OAKSTAR

I'm wondering how many of these boxes and cereal were submitted to the TPG'ers with the coin inside?

Would the grader get a free breakfast? 😂 🤣

Thanks for the post Tom. 👍🏻

CaptHenway

It's funny, but back in the day I bought two boxes of Cheerios hoping to hit a dollar and of course did not, but when I saw this listing it suddenly dawned on me that I had absolutely no recollection of where the coins were when I opened the boxes. This will gratify some future collector who wants to know "How were they put in the boxes....."

alaura22

I wonder how many people were taking metal detectors to the store?

gumby1234

All the specially marked boxes would set off the metal detector thou.

alaura22

@gumby1234 said:
All the specially marked boxes would set off the metal detector thou.

How so?

CaptHenway

@alaura22 said:

@gumby1234 said:
All the specially marked boxes would set off the metal detector thou.

How so?

All had at least a cent.

alaura22

@CaptHenway said:

@alaura22 said:

@gumby1234 said:
All the specially marked boxes would set off the metal detector thou.

How so?

All had at least a cent.

I didn't know that,I thought that were just in a certain amount of boxes and if you got one you were the lucky one.

CaptHenway

10 million boxes had just the cent. Approx. 5,500 boxes had a cent and a dollar.
I suppose that an amazingly sensitive metal detector might be able to tell the difference between 2.5 grams of mostly zinc and about 10.5 grams of largely copper, but none of the people who bragged about trying it ever claimed to have found one.

gumby1234

@alaura22 said:

@CaptHenway said:

@alaura22 said:

@gumby1234 said:
All the specially marked boxes would set off the metal detector thou.

How so?

All had at least a cent.

I didn't know that,I thought that were just in a certain amount of boxes and if you got one you were the lucky one.

The lucky ones got the Cheerio dollar version of the Sacagawea dollar.

OAKSTAR

Next question:

Do we know what part of the country the Cheerio dollar boxes were distributed?

EDIT: Don't mean to get off track. I know the thread is about the cent.

alaura22

Good question, I have no recollection of this going on. I lived in Ca. at that time

CaptHenway

@OAKSTAR said:
Next question:

Do we know what part of the country the Cheerio dollar boxes were distributed?

EDIT: Don't mean to get off track. I know the thread is about the cent.

They were intermingled with the 10 million and distributed nationwide.

jdimmick

You could use a detector, being a zinc cent, would be easy to discriminate out the penny, and look for only the sac dollar.

OAKSTAR

Thanks @CaptHenway

Project Numismatics

I distinctly remember the excitement as a YN. I convinced my parents to buy one box of Cheerios. I still have the cent in its original packaging. I was so disappointed not to find the dollar.

TwoSides2aCoin

i’m still wondering where the other 5400 boldly detailed tail feather Sacagawea dollars went.

alaura22

Probably went into circulation. Put a dollar in a cereal box and a kid finds it he's running to the candy store

Onedollarnohollar

this is what the packaging looked like for the two coins inside these boxes. a very lucky cherry pick a few years back. had to sell it for personal reasons but was so happy to have found one. I wonder how much this box will sell for. "it's what dreams are made of" to quote a line from The Maltese Falcon

ricko

I still have one of the cents in the cardboard/plastic holder .... Never did find the Sac/cent pair... Only purchased four boxes of Cheerios.... I like them toasted with melted butter and salt for an evening munchy. Cheers, RickO

DCW

1:1818 chance of getting the Sac Dollar.

That's ALOT of cereal, folks.

logger7

Other times that cereal producers put something of value inside a box? How about Honey Comb? They put a flake of gold inside a capsule in the 60s. Probably no one else remembers that.

OAKSTAR

@CaptHenway - Do you remember this article from 2018?

bsshog40

That's pretty cool. I still have one cent in it's packaging. Somewhere. Lol

pcgsregistrycollector

@Onedollarnohollar said:
this is what the packaging looked like for the two coins inside these boxes. a very lucky cherry pick a few years back. had to sell it for personal reasons but was so happy to have found one. I wonder how much this box will sell for. "it's what dreams are made of" to quote a line from The Maltese Falcon

Doesn't some dude have 45+ Cheerios dollars? I thought I saw a forum post somewhere.

CaptHenway

Yes

oih82w8

@OAKSTAR said:
Next question:

Do we know what part of the country the Cheerio dollar boxes were distributed?

EDIT: Don't mean to get off track. I know the thread is about the cent.

I picked up a couple boxes in NW Florida back in the day. No dollars were found by me though.

jfriedm56

Back in 2000, I was eating a lot of Wheaties looking for that elusive dollar. Never found one, but did get 3 Lincoln’s which I still have today in their original cello.Whoohoo!

WinLoseWin

Wonder how long the 10 million boxes lasted on the shelves.

I was buying Cheerios regularly anyway in the midwest at the time. I was watching for them, but don't recall seeing any marked boxes then. Did buy a cent in its packaging for $1.25 years later.

So was this promo stretched out over weeks or could they have been gone in a matter of days?

OAKSTAR

@CaptHenway said:
Yes

This collector Cliff Long and his wife were tragically killed in a house fire two weeks ago. We had an ongoing dialog for several years regarding all aspects of these small dollar coins.

jmlanzaf

@OAKSTAR said:

@CaptHenway said:
Yes

This collector Cliff Long and his wife were tragically killed in a house fire two weeks ago. We had an ongoing dialog for several years regarding all aspects of these small dollar coins.

Sorry for your loss

JBK

@jfriedm56 said:
Back in 2000, I was eating a lot of Wheaties looking for that elusive dollar. Never found one, but did get 3 Lincoln’s which I still have today in their original cello.Whoohoo!

Not surprising that you never found a Cheerios dollar while eating Wheaties.

JBK

@OAKSTAR said:

@CaptHenway said:
Yes

This collector Cliff Long and his wife were tragically killed in a house fire two weeks ago. We had an ongoing dialog for several years regarding all aspects of these small dollar coins.

Didn't he post here at one time and show his hoard?

That fire story is a terrible tragedy.

OAKSTAR

@JBK said:

@OAKSTAR said:

@CaptHenway said:
Yes

This collector Cliff Long and his wife were tragically killed in a house fire two weeks ago. We had an ongoing dialog for several years regarding all aspects of these small dollar coins.

Didn't he post here at one time and show his hoard?

I honestly don't know if he did or not.

JBK

@OAKSTAR said:

@JBK said:

@OAKSTAR said:

@CaptHenway said:
Yes

This collector Cliff Long and his wife were tragically killed in a house fire two weeks ago. We had an ongoing dialog for several years regarding all aspects of these small dollar coins.

Didn't he post here at one time and show his hoard?

I honestly don't know if he did or not.

I found the thread:

https://forums.collectors.com/discussion/1109822/the-cheerios-dollar-is-perhaps-he-best-almost-affordable-modern-sleeper-buyer-coin/p1

@dennis5151 said he had 50 of the Cheerios dollars.

OAKSTAR

@JBK - Yes, I remember that thread. I don't believe @dennis5151 and Cliff were the same guy... I could be wrong. Although, this guy @dennis5151 hasn't been here since Dec 24. 🤷‍♂️