Salvation Army Kettle: $5200 Gold :)

Wow. This one was big, even for the guys who do it.

that's nice of them to do that!

You can bet on it.

Referring to the wording of my previous post: there is an ad hoc group of gold collectors who have been making these deposits in Salvation Army buckets every year for many years. Some years they do Classic gold; other years (like this one) they do Moderns. Indeed, it's quite possible this particular deposit was a copycat, so well is this group (privately) known. If the Army didn't know before, they darned well do now and I quite assume that this group of collectors warned them beforehand originally so the donation wouldn't be missed.

Somebody in Fort Collins, CO was doing this with Krugerrands every year, this article was posted in 2007:
"A little bit of holiday magic blew in from the coast of South Africa this morning when a gold Krugerrand coin appeared in the hands of a Salvation Army volunteer at Safeway, 1426 E. Harmony Road. Worth more than $800, the South African gold coin has its way of appearing in the Salvation Army donation kettles each year since 1998 approximately a week before Christmas, said Capt. Mike Halverson of the Salvation Army."

It's never the same bucket location. I recall there was a rumor that the original donor passed away a few years ago and somebody else took over and is still doing it every year, but nobody has ever known who the donor was/is. I think they are usually wrapped in a dollar bill to protect the coin in the bucket.

I also think that the gold coins are usually wrapped in a bill of some denomination, to call attentionto it.

That is a great idea, although I think a venue like Heritage would be better-suited.