Skip to main content
Would You Like Some Milk With That? - The "Cheerios" Cent

Would You Like Some Milk With That? - The "Cheerios" Cent

Posted by Carl Hahn on 29th Nov 2021

In early 2000, General Mills undertook a promotional campaign celebrating the new millennium and the new Sacagawea dollar by creating inserts for their Cheerios brand cereal which included coins.  Ten million Lincoln cents from the Philadelphia mint were included in the promotion along with 5,500 of the new Sacagawea dollars from the Philadelphia mint.  The Sacagawea dollar inserts contain both a Lincoln cent and a Sacagawea dollar coin.  

The Sacagawea dollars turned out to be a developmental design that included additional detailing in the eagle feathers on the reverse of the coin.  As only a few thousand of the "Cheerios" dollars were minted, and many were subsequently spent in general circulation, this die pairing is extremely rare and examples of the "Cheerios" Sacagawea dollar command significant premiums over their more common counterparts from the 2000 mintage.  Only a few hundred graded examples of the "Cheerios" dollars exist and currently trade for roughly $5,000 - $10,000 each, depending on grade.  So, if you happen to have one of the "Cheerios" dollars in the original packaging stuffed away in a shoe box from your childhood, you would do well to retrieve it.

Figure 1. The Cheerios promotional cent in the original insert packaging.  The obverse of the card (Left) has a single cent encased beneath a clear polymeric overlay.  The reverse of the card (Right) displays a certificate of authenticity signed by the Director of the US Mint in 2000, Philip N. Diehl.

The "Cheerios" cents were much more common and of the standard circulation issue.  The "Cheerios" cent is a recognized variety and sought by many variety collectors.  Of the 10,000,000 original "Cheerios" cents, only a little more than 2,000 have been graded by NGC and PCGS collectively, representing a graded survival rate of only 0.02%.  To qualify for the graded "Cheerios" cent designation, the coins must be submitted to the grading services in the original insert.  No doubt many others remain in their original packaging stuffed in drawers, shoe boxes and collections, but in the intervening two decades, remarkably few graded examples have made it to the market considering the number originally issued.  As most of the survivors have been kept sealed in their protective inserts, those that are available are generally in high grades, with an average grade of MS66.  However, in grades above MS66, they are uncommon with fewer than 300 examples grading MS67 or greater between NGC and PCGS.  This creates a significant premium for the higher grade MS67 and MS68 coins, which trade at several hundred dollars each. 

Figure 2. The 2000 Cheerios promotional cent graded MS67 by NGC.

"Cheerios" cents in their original packaging inserts can still be found at auctions, flea markets and in the occasional shoebox full of old odds and ends.  They make for a fun discovery and a great Lincoln cent variety for the collector.  

Nustoria has a selection of "Cheerios" promotional cent examples available here: Lincoln Cents