Collectors who found one of the 5,500 2000-P Sacagawea dollars randomly hidden inside Cheerios-brand cereal products during a 2000 General Mills advertising promotion received an unexpected bonus unknown until now.
The 5,500 coins were struck with a reverse die produced from a different hub than that used for the regular issue Sacagawea dollars. The same die or another die produced from the same hub for the 5,500 dollar coins was also the version used for striking the reverse for the dozen Proof 2000-W Sacagawea 22-karat gold dollars that were placed aboard the space shuttle Columbia during its July 23, 1999, space mission.
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ARROWS POINT TO the central line of the tail feather shaft on two 2000-P Sacagawea dollars. The line is raised on the central tail feather on the design found on dollars distributed in boxes of Cheerios, left; the feathers also have more detail. The line is incused on the regular issue coins, and feathers lack final details.
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The differences between the two hubs are subtle, affecting only the tail feathers of the eagle, and could be easily overlooked. The central line of the tail feather shaft is raised on the Sacagawea dollars found in the Cheerios packages and on the special gold versions, but recessed on coins struck from circulation. The tail feathers on the Cheerios dollars also have more detail than the tail feathers on the coins struck for circulation. The changes to the design for the circulating issues were deliberate to make the tail feathers more realistic.
All later Sacagawea dollars were struck from dies bearing a recessed central line on the shaft of the tail feather. Even the 2000-P Sacagawea dollars paid to recipients of vouchers inside Cheerios boxes for 100 Sacagawea dollars received coins bearing the regular reverse.
A debate has ensued over whether the pieces are patterns or a hub variation.
Patterns are experimental pieces bearing designs that may or may not be adopted for circulation production. In many cases, the pattern version of an adapted design type bears an earlier date than that on the first circulation issue. For example, a popular pattern is the 1858 Indian Head cent bearing the same designs introduced into circulation in 1859.
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THE VERSION USED for the Cheerios dollars and the Proof gold versions of the 2000-P Sacagawea dollar appears at the left. The regular version is depicted to the right.
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Hub variations reflect minor changes to a design to improve a coin's appearance or striking characteristics. Collectors of 1878 Morgan dollars recognize various hub changes involving the tail feathers on its eagle.
On June 17, Numismatic Guaranty Corporation of America was ready to encapsulate the discovery coin as a pattern. However, NGC's declaration of the piece as a pattern is not being universally accepted by numismatists who have seen or discussed the pieces.
California collector Pat Braddick is being credited with sending NGC the discovery coin, five years after he found it inside a Cheerios cereal box. Braddick's coin had been housed in an ANACS holder with its origin from the Cheerios box noted on the grading insert when it was submitted to NGC in February.
On June 20, NGC officials were still awaiting word on whether Anderson Publishing Co.'s Whitman division, which publishes the United States Pattern, Experimental & Trial Pieces by J. Hewitt Judd, edited by Q. David Bowers, would assign a Judd number to the Cheerios dollars.
The Proof 2000-W Sacagawea gold dollars are designated as Judd 2190.
Bowers said he, as Whitman's numismatic director, and pattern specialist Saul Teichman, a Whitman consultant, are studying the situation.
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NGC IS CALLING the early version of the design a pattern. Not all in the hobby agree with that view.
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Bowers is unconvinced the Cheerios version should be labeled a pattern. In e-mail June 20, Bowers notes, that while had not seen an image of the Cheerios coin at that point, "My take at the moment is that it was made for circulation, and in large quantities to be given out to the public. ..."
Teichman also does not consider the Cheerios pieces patterns. "To me they are no different than 1856 Flying Eagle cents or 1907 Wire Edge and Rolled Edge [Indian Head] eagles or 1867 No Rays Shield nickels, which were struck using the pattern reverse of 1866," he said in e-mail.
Andrew Lustig, a pattern specialist with R.M. Smythe in New York City and who with Teichman runs the U.S. Patterns.com Web site (http://uspatterns.com), discussed with David Camire, NGC's Mint error expert, the status of the Cheerios dollars.
In a June 17 e-mail to Bowers about a Judd designation for the Cheerios dollars, David W. Lange, NGC's director of numismatic research, wrote that "the conclusion of all the minds here is that it is unquestionably a pattern coin. The obverse is as issued, but the reverse has a very distinctive arrangement of tail feathers. This is the reverse originally sculpted by Tom Rogers and then modified before mass production began. This fact has been confirmed by him and others at the Philadelphia Mint.
"We want to assign this Judd number 2191, following the gold impressions, J-2190. Both the gold strikings and these standard alloy patterns are from the same master hubs," Lange wrote.
A second Cheerios specimen that aided in the confirmation of the discovery piece was also to be encapsulated by NGC, and a third specimen was in mail transit for examination, Camire said. Camire said the Cheerios coins would be encapsulated with the pattern designation without a Judd number, and should one be assigned, the pieces could be re-encapsulated with the Judd designation.
Sixteen models
A U.S. Mint engraver executed 16 reverse models before the final model for the regular-issue Sacagawea dollars was adopted by Mint officials. The engravings were executed by then Mint Engraver Thomas D. Rogers Sr., designer of the reverse.
The 5,500 Cheerios Sacagawea dollars, as well as the gold Proofs, were produced from one of the first 15 models, but which one is not known. Since the shuttle in which the gold Proof dollars traveled was launched in July 1999, they were likely produced weeks before the Cheerios coins.
Thirty-nine gold Proofs were produced, with 27 melted, according to Mint officials.
The Proof gold versions were struck on the same .9167 fine gold planchets as the half-ounce gold American Eagle coins.
Coin World learned through Mint documents obtained in mid-2002 by then American Lawyer Media reporter Michael Ravnitsky from a Freedom of Information Act appeal that additional Proof Sacagawea gold dollars had been struck Dec. 1, 1999, and there were indications a modified reverse bearing the denomination as FIVE DOLLARS was also made.
Number of tail feathers
All of the Sacagawea dollars - the 5,500 Cheerios dollars, all of the regular issue coins for circulation and collector sets, and the gold Proofs - depict the American bald eagle with the correct number of tail feathers - 12. It's how they are represented that caused early confusion among experts.
According to a statement from the U.S. Mint released June 17 by spokeswoman Joyce Harris, "5,500 Golden Dollars of a 'high detail' feather variety (12 tail feathers) were manufactured and shipped to General Mills as part of the Golden Dollar promotion in October 1999, under a detailed arrangement that they not be released until January 2000. Prior to manufacturing the coins for release to the Federal Reserve in 2000, the feather detail was softened and the center tail feather was recessed to solve a die manufacturing issue. Recessing the center tail feather gives the illusion of a 13th feather, but that was not the intent."
Chicago numismatist Thomas K. DeLorey, who works for Harlan J. Berk Ltd., had his suspicions from the outset that something about the early coins differed from those struck for circulation. He had the opportunity on Oct. 20, 1999, to attend a Chicago news conference during which Mint officials shared examples of trial pieces of the new dollar coins with representatives from nationwide vending machine companies. DeLorey said he examined one of the vending machine coins under magnification and counted what he initially thought were 13 tail feathers. He has since accepted that both versions show 12 feathers.
When DeLorey was able to obtain Sacagawea dollars in January 2000 from a Wal-Mart store, he compared the diagnostics of their reverse to what he had witnessed from examining the vending machine pieces, concluding there were differences in the two.
DeLorey had a further hunch - not only that the Proof Sacagawea gold dollars shared a similar reverse to the vending machine dollars, but there was the possibility that a number of the Cheerios dollars may also have been produced with the same reverse.
Half of the mystery was solved when Coin World provided DeLorey with copies of images obtained in mid-2001 from the U.S. Mint of the obverse and reverse of the Proof gold dollars before the gold Proofs were moved from Mint headquarters in Washington to Fort Knox for safekeeping. DeLorey said the second half of the puzzle fell into place through discussions with Rogers about the development of the engraving of the Sacagawea dollar reverse, learning of Braddick's submission of a Cheerios dollar and DeLorey's own acquisition of two Cheerios dollars.
Mint officials in Washington initially claimed no changes were made, according to DeLorey.
DeLorey explained that the reverse for the Proof Sacagawea 2000-W gold dollars from the space shuttle and that for the Cheerios 2000-P dollars has each tail feather showing raised barbs and vanes. The raised barbs appear coming out at a 45-degree angle from the vanes. The central line of the tail feather shaft, or "rachis," also is shown raised.
It was that raised line that originally convinced DeLorey that one feather had been split into two.
DeLorey explained the changes.
To assist a production problem and give the appearance of the central tail feather as it is supposed to look in nature, white rather than brown, the raised line on the wide central tail feather was changed to a recessed line, DeLorey said.
Cheerios promotion
General Mills launched a joint promotion Jan. 1, 2000, with the United States Mint to include 2000 Lincoln cents in 10 million boxes of Cheerios boxes across six Cheerios products lines, along with a single 2000-P Sacagawea dollar inside every 2,000th box. Some boxes included a voucher redeemable for 100 dollar coins.
Braddick, a collector of U.S. coins for some 30 years, found the discovery piece inside a Cheerios box in January 2000 and submitted it, still inside the original packaging, to ANACS where it was encapsulated with the Cheerios designation. The Cheerios dollar had been sealed inside cellophane with a card blocking inspection of the reverse.
Braddick said he put the coin into his collection and didn't give much thought to it until a few months ago when he was contacted by collector Mike Wallace, who operates a Web site devoted to Sacagawea dollars (www.small dollars_.com).
Other than coming from a Cheerios box, Braddick said he didn't think there was anything special about the coin.
DeLorey submitted to NGC in April one of the two Cheerios dollars he received on the secondary market, keeping one it its original packaging.
DeLorey said Camire plans to exhibit the examples of his certified coin as well as the Cheerios dollar in original packaging during the American Numismatic Association World's Fair of Money in San Francisco.
All images by David Camire, courtesy of NGC.
