For the ninth year in a row, a valuable gold coin has been plunked into a Salvation Army kettle in Mason City. The agency’s Major Lori Wright says she was thrilled to find the one-ounce golden Krugerrand worth about 500-dollars after going through the kettles a few nights ago.
Wright says it was a kettle from Wal-Mart that she opened and found a one-dollar bill that was taped shut and contained the gold coin in a plastic sheath case. She says the charity is very fortunate to have a secret admirer. Wright says it was “very exciting” to be blessed to be chosen to have someone donate one of the coins each year. She says the coins are auctioned off at the start of each Christmas season. Wright says her chapter of the Salvation Army recognizes the compassion of the annual anonymous donor for dropping off the golden coin.
The first Krugerrand was donated to the Mason City chapter of the Salvation Army in 1997, with three coins placed in kettles from 1999 to 2003. The coins have been used yearly to raise money at a special auction at Southbridge Mall, which this year hauled in nearly three-thousand dollars.