Mysterious gold coins show up again in Mason City kettles

The Mason City Salvation Army has struck gold again. For the fifth year in a row, an anonymous donor has deposited South African gold Krugerrand coins into one of their red kettles. The Salvation Army’s Major Lori Wright says they were sorting through the kettles last night and opened the one from the K-Mart store. They noticed a dollar bill folded in the same way that they’ve appeared in the past when they were wrapped around a Krugerrand. The past three years, the Mason City kettles have turned up more than one of the valuable coins.They kept looking, and found two more. Wright and her husband Chuck just moved from the St. Louis area to run the Mason City Salvation Army. She says people call from Des Moines to ask why the coins don’t appear in their kettles, and says Mason City is “blessed.” Wright says it’s hard to tell if the same person keeps dropping the coins into the kettle each year.The coins are always wrapped in the dollar bill, and though a copycat could get that idea from the news, she says the format makes them think it could be the same person. Krugerrands coins are 99-point-9-9-9-percent pure gold, with their value fluctuating with the price of gold. The Mason City Salvation Army will sell the coins.