A valuable coin was dropped in a Salvation Army Red Kettle over the weekend in Des Moines. On Saturday, an anonymous donor left a one-ounce gold piece in a kettle outside a grocery store near the Des Moines Airport. The 1978 South African Gold Krugerrand is worth around $1,200.
It’s the second time a gold coin has been contributed to a Des Moines area Red Kettle this season. Thanks in part to those donations, the Salvation Army in Des Moines has surpassed the two-thirds mark toward its drive to raise $1.2 million with this year’s Red Kettle campaign.
Salvation Army officials say the tradition of gold Krugerrands and other gold coins being deposited in Red Kettles began three decades ago when a Krugerrand was discovered in a Red Kettle in Crystal Lake, Illinois.