Rare gold coins, worth $2,000, left as donations in Salvation Army red kettles nationwide

Secret Santas in several U.S. cities are in ringing in the holiday spirit leaving extra generous donations in the Salvation Army’s red kettles.

Every year, shoppers flooding mall and stores across America in search of the perfect presents for their loved ones come across someone standing in all sorts of weather conditions ringing the charity organization's red kettles and donating some bills or spare change.

Volunteers never know how much they might find when they come to count the donations, but some in Indiana, Vermont and Michigan were pleasantly surprised when mystery donors left rare gold coins worth around $2,000 in the kettles.

Mystery rare gold coin donations across 3 states

In Indiana, volunteers came across a $50 Gold American Eagle Coin last week in a kettle that was outside a Walmart in Plainfield, Fox59 reported. As of Dec. 11, the price of an ounce of gold was estimated to be around $1,995.

“Receiving a gift like this in a kettle is really a double portion for us,” Maj. Rachel Stouder, the Central Indiana area commander, told the outlet. “We are grateful not only for its monetary value but also the morale booster of receiving such a valuable sacrifice from a caring donor. Central Indiana truly does have some of the very best people.”

In Vermont, it's was just an ordinary day when Maj. Keith Jache and other volunteers were counting money and came across a $5 bill with a bag taped to it.

“And our first thing was like, 'who is trying to be funny?'" Jache told WCAX.

Jache said he was hesitant to open it, but did so anyways.

“There was a gold coin in there,” he said. “You’ve heard of it happening in other places and they’re usually worth a couple hundred dollars, so when we got it appraised and he said, ‘Yes, it is real and it is worth $2,000,’ we were overly happy and overly blessed to receive it.”

As Jache and his volunteers were celebrating the generous donation, so was another chapter in Michigan. An anonymous donor dropped off a "rare South African gold Krugerrand" into a red kettle outside a Kroger in Detroit on Sunday night, WXYZ reported.

According to Monex, the Krugerrand is valued at approximately $2,031.

In fact, this isn't the first year someone has dropped the rare Krugerrand in a donation bin in the area. According to WXYZ, this year's donation marks the 11th consecutive year, the South African gold coin has been donated in Macomb County.

All the volunteers were grateful for the donations, which helped them get one step closer to providing food and clothes for people in need.

“It just makes you so happy,” Jache told WCAX. “It’s that Christmas spirit and knowing it’s because of that generosity we get to help others.”