1999 Signature Bear

The 1999 Signature Bear was made for one year only, from 1 January 1999 to 23 December 1999. He is style number 4228, stands 9 inches, and has no birthday. He carries a fifth generation swing tag and a seventh generation tush tag.

The New York Yankees gave him to every child aged 14 and under at their game against the Seattle Mariners on 9 May 1999.

He has been counterfeited, and the colour gives most fakes away. An authentic bear is a mottled cocoa brown. The counterfeit is a creamy beige, and it is smaller. A genuine bear has a ribbon and the counterfeit does not. The hologram on the tush tag should shift through a rainbow when tilted, and a fake's is a dull lead colour that does nothing.

Two smaller checks. Inside the red heart, the year 1999 on a counterfeit has a 1 that runs longer than the other three digits, and longer than the 1 on a genuine bear. On the left side of the swing tag, a fake has a space before the comma after Gosport and is missing the full stop after the K in U.K.