For years, secret donor has visited NC Walmart — always to give away a rare gold coin
For years at a North Carolina Walmart, an anonymous donor has plunked a rare gold coin into the Salvation Army red kettles at Christmas.
This year’s coin — wedged along with a dollar bill into a kettle at the Shelby Walmart on Black Friday — is worth about $1,500, Shelley Henderson, spokeswoman for The Salvation Army of the Carolinas, told The Charlotte Observer on Wednesday.
Salvation Army officials know it’s the same donor because the same note is left with the rare coin each year, Henderson said.
“Thank you for sharing the true joy, love, and peace of Christmas with others throughout each year,” the note says. “It is my hope that this gift will encourage you, those you serve, and others who give generously.”
A different but similarly valuable gold coin was dropped in the kettle at the Walmart in 2015 and 2016, Henderson said. There may have been other years, she said, but the organization couldn’t confirm the anonymous donor’s activity.
The 2016 piece was a one-ounce Krugerrand gold coin, The Charlotte Observer reported at the time.
Black Friday donation
On Black Friday morning last week, Mike Ledford was ringing the bell at the kettle when someone showed up with a thick object wrapped in a dollar bill, Salvation Army officials said.
“I helped push it into the kettle – it almost didn’t fit,” Ledford said, according to a Salvation Army of Shelby news release.
The object was a 1915 Austrian 100 Corona gold coin, Sgt. Les Ashby, corps officer for The Salvation Army of Shelby, said in the release.
The donated coin, 100 years old, is a nearly an ounce of gold, Henderson told the Observer.
Coin depicts emperor
Ashby said he got a call Friday morning from someone saying a “special gift” had been donated at a kettle.
“The caller instructed me to use the gift to help people and encourage others to give,” Ashby said in the release. “We were thrilled when we opened the kettle and found a gold coin!”
The front of the coin profiles Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria, according to online rare coin dealer Blanchard & Co. The reverse depicts the Austrian coat of arms, a double eagle with a crown, company officials say.
“When Americans were granted the right to own gold again in 1974, one of the few gold bullion coins available for purchase was the 100 Corona,” according to Blanchard & Co. “The market is now crowded with beautiful bullion designs, but this handsome coin endures as one of the best values per ounce, making it an excellent choice for serious investors.”
Red kettles help the poor
Ledford was ringing the bell last week with other volunteers from New Bethel Church in Shelby when the magnanimous donor once again showed up this year.
The Salvation Army’s Red Kettle Campaign started in San Francisco in 1891 and is now recognized as the largest and oldest charitable fundraiser of its kind in the U.S, according to The Salvation Army website.
All money raised in the Red Kettles stays in the local community, providing Christmas and year-round services to families in need.
“I know now it was the gold coin,” he said. “I feel so good I was volunteering at that time. This money will go a long way in helping people.”