A gold fortune with a value of over €100,000 was found in a box of donated food at Lindenhof Senior Centre in Lürrip in Mönchengladbach, Germany.

The Local reported that the fortune in the form of South African gold coins was discovered by an employee of the adult care center.

A 78-year-old widow recently donated the box of left-over high-calorie drinks to the center. The husband of this woman had died recently.

The center manager Anja Maser revealed that when she opened the box, she was amazed to find gold coins in another heavy ice-box hidden underneath. Maser showed this box to her colleague Claudia Spetsman, who identified the coins as South African Krugerrands that hold a huge value. There were 109 coins in total and all these gold coins featured South African national animal, the Springbock. Each of these one-ounce gold coins is worth around €1,000. There were also some older, more valuable coins in the box, taking the total value of the box to over €100,000.

Eine Witwe spendet ein Lebensmittelpaket an ein #Seniorenheim in #Mönchengladbach – was sie übersieht: Darin befinden sich die #Goldmünzen ihres verstorbenen Mannes! #Pflegerin Anja Maser hat die Münzen entdeckt und gab sie der Dame zurück! pic.twitter.com/fQr0rtN9hh — SAT.1 NRW (@sat1nrw) December 1, 2017

The Kruggerand was introduced in 1967, and its exchange rate is determined daily by the price of gold. Soon after its introduction, Kruggerand became a popular bullion coin used to store value in the form of gold coins.

“This was the first gold bullion coin introduced after gold coins had ceased to exist as currency,” says David Yoon of the American Numismatic Society.

“Several other countries, including the U.S., Canada, Australia, and China now issue gold coins for the same reason—but South Africa was the first one.”

The center manager then informed the police, and the search for the donor was commenced.

“We knew absolutely nothing about her as the senior center only moved to Lürrip a few days ago,” Spetsman told the Rheinische Post.

“The behavior of the women is super.”

An address sticker on one of the boxes helped police trace the identity and location of the donor. The coins were returned to the widow who revealed that she was unaware of the coins inside the box. While she knew about these coins, she had no idea how they got into the donation box. The woman was very happy to get them back, and expressed her gratitude for Maser and Spetsman who decided to return the coins to the police.

The police are still investigating how the coins ended up in the box. The woman thinks it could be some kind of plot to steal the collection from her house.

[Featured Image by Pixabay]