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Cheerios Dollar .... 1st year issue type coin.
Nic
Posts: 3,438 ✭✭✭✭✭
The cent thread reminded me of how I've always liked this issue.
Thoughts?
1
Comments
Well, I of course am a huge fan of the coin, having been the first person to report (in the year 2000) that a different reverse existed.
What's to say. We all wish we owned one even to sell and buy another coin.!
What's not to like? NGC authenticated the Discovery Specimen. In doing so they stated, "This is unquestionably one of the most intriguing new finds in the annals of modern coinage. The fact that they are just now being recognized, five years after their release, is surprising to many experts."
I agree.
A favorite of mine. Sold last year, and held it ten years too long. I could have sold it for $25K when PCGS first graded it. Got half that.
https://acoinshop.com/ —-> https://ebay.us/m/KxolR5
CaptHenway! I didn't remember that you discovered the Cheerios variety! It's a fascinating story, and far and away the most interesting Sac that's emerged.
Belated congratulations!
Here's a warning parable for coin collectors...
Definitely one that I have on the radar- I check every 2000-P I come across for those unique tail feathers. Would love to add to my collection someday!
I've read that some of these have ended up in circulation- have there ever been reports of these being found in mint wrapped rolls, or, the first day of issue cover released by the mint?
Great discovery Tom!
I've had 3-4 of them and still think they are pretty cool.
Hard to believe a MS68 brought over 30K at one time!
I look for these at yard sales (still in cardboard) and antique shops.... and, of course, in change. I still have a mint roll - unopened - however, it is very unlikely one would be in there. Cheers, RickO
I have always wondered what happened to the accented feather pieces I saw at that press conference in Chicago in October of 1999, which is how I knew that the ones issued in January of 2000 were different. There is no reason to think that the Mint people who had them there knew that they were going to be patterns. Did they end up in a jar back at Mint headquarters where they were eventually spent? Were they thrown into a ballistic bag of normal coins? We will never know.
TD
I am fuzzy on the details and I know the answers are at www.smalldollars.com, but since the original source is here, why was there so much time between your report in 2000 and the recognition of the variety/discovery piece? Was it that no one knew that the press conference patterns ended up in the Cheerios boxes?
I do not believe they are "patterns" at all, as they were produced to release in to general circulation if you will. Unusual; though not a pattern.
My 1866 Philly Mint Set
In May or so of 1999 the Mint struck (without Congressional authorization) some Sacagawea dollars in 22kt gold to go up on the Space Shuttle. When word got out about them there was a big stink about them being unauthorized strikes, and the Mint suppressed them. No pictures were released.
Many years later (2005?) Paul Gilkes of Coin World obtained pictures of them using the Freedom of Information Act. When I saw the pictures I recognized the different reverse design as being what I had seen in October of 1999 and reported in early 2000.
It occurred to me that if the Mint was using that reverse in May of 1999, and again for the coins that I saw in October of 1999, then it might have used the same reverse for the Cheerios dollars, which had to have been struck in 1999 in order to have been placed in the two-coin packages and then placed in boxes of cereal that were sitting in grocery stores ready to sell on January 1, 2000. (They were; I went and bought a box. Still have the box, but all I got was a cent.) Prior to that nobody had suggested or even suspected that the Cheerios dollars could have the different reverse.
I spread the word that the Cheerios dollars MIGHT have the pattern reverse on them, and Braddick saw my comments and looked at his dollar that had already been slabbed by ANACS and saw the differences that neither he nor ANACS had previously noticed. He sent me pictures and I confirmed it.
Prior to this I had asked the Mint about the last minute design change multiple times, but they always said that no design change had been made. The publicity office might have been deliberately lying, or they might have been legitimately ignorant of the last minute design change. I do not know which is the case.
FWIW, I got to speak with Tom Rogers at an ANA convention, and he said that when he made the last minute design change he did not know that the promotional department had already struck coins from the pattern design for both the Cheerios promotion and the October, 1999 press conference, just as the promotional department did not know that he was still tinkering with the design.
BTW, Rogers said that he took the detailing out of the tail feathers to make them appear more "white," as tail feathers do appear on a mature bald eagle. Don't know why he changed the detailing of the wings.
TD
Thanks TD!
My 1866 Philly Mint Set
I think I bought 30 Boxes of Cheerios trying to get one of those new Sackies. Didn't even find a one, of course. I ended up messing all my Lincolns looking for a wide AM variety. No luck with that either.
If I'd know about those Feathers I might have purchased an entire Pallet of Cheerios.