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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;cpm9ball, post: 912851, member: 24633&quot;]For those of you who don&#039;t know the background of the Cheerios Sac, in 1999 a prototype die was produced to strike a gold specimen of the 2000 Sac, and the gold version was taken on the space shuttle. The prototype die had 11 tailfeathers with the central feather being wider, and the wing feathers were enhanced showing more detail. Subsequently, changes were made to the reverse die. The spine of the wider central tailfeather was removed making two narrower tailfeathers and the enhanced wing feathers were &quot;softened&quot; making the detail more subdued for the 12-tailfeather design that was finally adopted for the production of the 2000 Sac.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>In 1999, the makers of Cheerios were negotiating with the Mint to obtain the 2000 Sac and Lincoln cent for their special Millennium promotion, and they were able to get 5,500 of each coin with the provision that the promotional boxes of cereal were not to be released before January 1, 2000. Tom DeLorey had been researching this for years trying to prove that the prototype dies were used to strike some of the Cheerios Sac&#039;s which the Mint had denied ever happened. Pat Braddick (NGC forum member) had been following this story because he had one of the promotional cellophane packs that contained the coins which he, himself, had taken from a box of Cheerios. Pat was eventually credited with having the first Cheerios Sac authenticated a few years back, and if I recall correctly, it sold at auction for about $9K, but prices have come down since then.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>You should be aware that the 11-tailfeather Sac with the enhanced wing feathers and the 12-tailfeather version that was eventually adopted for normal production were both used by Cheerios in their promotion. So, not all Cheerios Sacs were necessarily struck from the prototype dies.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>If you can, please post photos of the tailfeathers and the wing feathers so we can see which variety you have<b>. Do not remove the coins from the cellophane</b>! While the 12-tailfeather variety is not worth as much as the 11-tailfeather variety, it still sells for a small premium.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Chris[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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