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$2K gold coin finds its way into Salvation Army kettle in Vermont
Volunteers thought the taped $5 bill they found in a red kettle was a joke — until they opened the folded cash to find a gold coin worth thousands of dollars.
When Major Keith Jache and other Salvation Army volunteers go through a red kettle during their annual holiday fundraising drive in Vermont, they’re usually adding up and sifting through small bills, sometimes bigger check donations.
But during this year’s winter campaign, which has a higher fundraising goal than usual due to the floods that impacted Barre and surrounding communities, it was a $5 bill that shocked them.
“As we were separating the dollars, I noticed a $5 bill that was taped,” Jache, the officer for the Salvation Army’s Barre Corps, said. “At first I thought, ‘Who is being a joker?’”
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Taped inside the bill was a gold coin, which Jache would later learn was worth more than $2,000.
His wife and commanding officer of the Barre Salvation Army office, Katherine, said they’ve never received a donation like this before in the 17 years they’ve been officers with the organization.
“We do get all kinds of weird things in our kettles, or all kinds of foreign money,” Keith Jache said. “This was a blessing wrapped up in a $5 bill.”
Jache said he’s heard about these occurrences before during the Red Kettle campaign. This year volunteers for the religious charity organization in Indiana and Michigan found gold coins in their kettles, and in years past strangers have dropped jewelry and even gold bars in kettles.
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Still, he never thought it would happen in the “little town of Barre.”
An associate with Stack’s Bowers in Boston said the coin itself — the one in Barre is a 2015 American Eagle — is actually not that rare. Some years hundreds of thousands are made and are bought and sold.
That won’t impact its appraised value — its weight in gold is what makes it worth over $2,000. The price of gold broke records last week and has been steadily rising going on a few months.
When Jache took the one-ounce coin to get it appraised, the coin’s value that day was $2,029.40.
And that amount, however it ended up in their kettle outside of a Walmart, was needed more than ever before, he said.
Many in Barre were impacted in some way by the catastrophic flooding over the summer, which led to thousands of residents in Vermont losing their homes and businesses. The Salvation Army’s thrift store, which is their main source of income, was completely destroyed, while their main office and another building they own were damaged by the flooding.
And because of the devastating storm, Jache said people have been in need of the Salvation Army’s services in town more so this year.
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“We have seen so many more people coming in for food assistance, we can’t keep food on the shelves,” he said. “Because the need is great, we’re not getting as much funds.”
Their goal this year is $100,000 to put back in their general fund, a big ask that would pay for food and utility assistance and after school programs in the area. They’re about $70,000 shy of that goal as of Wednesday.
“We’re hoping and praying that more people like this person that was generous and gave us the gold coin will help us reach that goal,” Jache said.
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