Definition: In the early part of the year 2000, the U. S. Mint inserted newly minted 2000(P) Lincoln cents and 2000-P Sacagawea dollar coins into “Cheerios” cereal boxes. This promotion by the government was to make the public aware of the new golden dollar coin and involved over 10 million boxes of cereal. Out of the 10 million boxes, approximately 5,500 contained the 2000-P Sacagawea dollar coin which is now labeled as the “Cheerios” dollar.
Sacagawea dollars were released in 2000 and honor Sacagawea, a young Shoshone woman who is depicted on the obverse of the dollar with her infant son, Jean-Baptiste, swaddled on her back. The obverse was designed by Glenna Goodacre while the reverse, featuring an eagle in flight, was designed by Thomas D.
It was later discovered that many of these “Cheerios” dollars were struck from a different master die than the normal 2000-P Sacagawea dollar coins. The difference can be seen in the tail feathers of the eagle on the reverse of the coin. The “Cheerios” dollar has enhanced feathers, while the normal dollar coin does not. See images below.
- Value of 2000-P Sacagawea Gold Dollar Coin. There were no less than 767,140,000 2000-P Sacagawea gold dollars minted in 2000. At the time, that was about 3 coins for every American. It goes without saying that a mintage that large doesn’t leave any room for these coins to ever really be rare. Loose 2000-P Sacagawea coins are still just worth.
- The 2000 “Cheerios” Sacagawea Dollar is considered to be a true pattern, and pieces are somewhat difficult to find. The total number distributed was 5,500 pieces, but a much smaller number is currently known to exist.
- In late 1999 and early 2000 - The US Mint was working with businesses such as Walmart and Sam's Club to help promote and distribute the new 2000 'golden' Sacagawea Dollar coins. The General Mills cereal company also began participating in the program by putting a year 2000 Sacagawea dollar in 1 of every 2000 boxes of Cheerios cereal.
Tom DeLorey surmises that the Mint’s engraving department was still in the process of refining the Sacagawea dies and was not aware that the 5,500 sent to General Mills for packaging were struck with the enhanced tail feather dies. DeLorey further speculates that a small percentage of these coins were sent back to the Mint due to spoilage and then replaced by more recently struck Sacagawea coins without the enhanced tail feathers.
This meant that two types of dollars ended up inside Cheerios boxes; one type with the enhanced tail feathers and the other type without the enhanced tail feathers. The enhanced tail feather version is considered to be a prototype by collectors.
2000 Sacagawea Dollar Coin Value
2000-P Sacagawea dollar with enhanced tail feathers. |
2000 Sacagawea Dollar Roll
2000-P Sacagawea dollar without enhanced tail feathers. |
2000 Sacagawea Dollar Wounded Eagle
Without enhanced tail feathers |