Even as an adult I learned that the company who made these never meant for kids to get a free sucker if you turn this in.
Yet when I was a kid our local convince store did honor this. If you got the Native American with the star I could turn it in for a free one.
I’ve seen the story many times that the company never intended for the star to mean you won a free sucker, but I have yet to see an explanation for why the star is there on some, but not on others.
The printed pattern is larger than individual wrappers. You could say the same about any of the graphics only appearing sometimes.
I didn’t learn that it was something the store were doing until saw it on Reddit in my late 30’s. It true even then no one had an explanation for that.