LANCASTER, Pa. — A Lancaster church received what they call an answered prayer through an anonymous donation.
“Small blessings like this help reinvigorate the church and help the narrative that we are doing good work,” said Derrick Gutierrez, a senior pastor at Covenant United Methodist Church.
It was a typical Tuesday afternoon at the Covenant United Methodist Church in Lancaster when a church member found a mysterious gold coin while counting pennies in the church’s donation jar.
It turns out that what they found was worth much more than just a pretty penny.
“First, we didn’t know what it was. I didn’t have my glasses on, so I passed it over to my wife,” said Ron Kimmich, a Covenant church member.
“I [saw] 1909 at the top and then I [saw that] it’s a five-dollar gold coin. I had never seen anything like that before. And so I said, I’m calling the newspaper. He said, calm down. We don’t even know if it’s worth anything,” said Chris Kimmich, the Covenant Church's finance chair.
According to a coin dealer, the gold on this coin is worth more than $525, an amount that Chris says is more than they’ve ever received.
“We were actually surprised. We had no idea. That’s a lot of money for a coin,” said Ron.
The Kimmichs sold the $5 1909 Littleton Indian Head gold coin to their son for $550.
The pastor says the donor of the coin remains a mystery, but they have every intention of using the money they made from it to help their ministry, whose population has been dwindling since COVID-19.
But Gutierrez says that because of the unexpected funds and publicity the gold coin brought, they are hopeful.
“There may be people who are new to our community, who are just looking for a church, who are looking for something familiar. And what we’re hoping is that if they see this information, they might be curious enough to come visit us,” said Gutierrez.
And while they wait for new members to flood their doors, church members say they count pennies with bated breath, hoping for their next golden opportunity.