Mystery as gold coins worth £70k appear in churches

Tidying away after a wedding, Sue Hunter caught sight of a bag of gold and silver coins resting behind a cross on the altar.

Rushing to flag down the bride and bridegroom, the churchwarden found they knew nothing of the treasure that had been left at St John the Baptist Church in Tunstall, Lancashire.

“It was a mystery,” the 69-year-old retired teacher told The Telegraph, adding that she decided to lock the coins in a safe until their rightful owners presented themselves.

There they lay untouched for almost four years, until this week, when it became clear that the answer was probably rooted in the kindness of a Good Samaritan who laid a trail of gold across north Lancashire in July 2022.

Churches dotted in a line carving up through the county discovered gold and silver coins left in donation boxes, under doors and, in one case, handed over in person.

Following in the footsteps of the mystery donor, The Telegraph has found at least eight churches that have received bullion amounting to more than £70,000 in total – offering beleaguered rural parishes a financial lifeline.

“It is a wonderful thing whoever has done this,” Nick Gillibrand, a fellow churchwarden at St John’s, said, adding that the find would kickstart fundraising to repair the Grade-I listed building’s medieval Flemish stained glass windows.

“They are in bad condition, it is going to cost hundreds of thousands of pounds,” the 77-year-old retired architect said, adding that the coins had galvanised the parish to push on with its campaign.

The seven silver coins and one gold Britannia coin, which are about a decade old and worth around £3,500, had been left in a plastic bag with the name of a bullion dealer in Blackpool.

A few miles up the road at St Wilfrid’s in Melling, nine gold Britannia coins were discovered in an identical bag sticking out from under the wedding kneeler by the altar on Good Friday this year.

‘Like a miracle’

Produced by the Royal Mint in 1999, the nine coins had a face value of £100 each but sold for almost £30,000.

The Rev Jane Lee, vicar of St Wilfrid’s, said the find had come at a time when the 14th-century church was in the process of winding down under the weight of looming £750,000 repair costs.

“We just burst into tears when we saw it,” the 54-year-old told the BBC this week. “It was like a miracle because it’s so desperately needed for the church.”

Attached to the coins left at St Wilfrid’s had been a note written on Salvation Army-headed notepaper, dated July 16 2022 and timestamped 11am.

It read: “Hi there, I’d like to donate these nine gold Britannias to Melling Church – the plastic bag identifies a bullion realtor.

“James, a servant of the Living God.”

The Salvation Army told The Telegraph that the writing pads, described as branded, had been sent out as a thank you to donors years ago and there was no way of tracing the donor.

The identity of “James” remains shrouded in mystery and some recipients said they hoped it would stay that way.

St Margaret’s in Hornby received a surprise deposit of five gold coins in their donation box four years ago.

The Rev Lucie Lunn said the community had “absolutely no idea” who the anonymous donor might be.

She told The Telegraph: “It is hard, because you want to say thank you but there is also something perfectly faithful to give without looking for thanks. It was an uplift for the church.

“One of the greatest myths is that the church is rich – in rural areas parishes don’t have reserves to manage their buildings and they have tiny populations.”

Tom Rothwell, the churchwarden, said the coins had come with no name and only a scrap of paper advising that the church contact a bullion dealer.

“We are extremely grateful, it has helped tremendously and enabled us to do a lot on our roof – though there is more to do,” the retired lecturer said, pointing up to water ingress marks.

“With the congregation getting less, it is getting harder and harder to raise funds. The village is only small,” the 72-year-old said, adding that the church was staring down the barrel of a £500,000 bill to fix the nave’s roof.

Mr Rothwell said there had been speculation over the identity of the donor but no solid evidence.

“We thought it might be a gentleman who used to come with his mother for afternoon tea on Sunday, but it is guesswork,” he said, adding that he assumed it was someone “reaching the end of their life” who may have been settling their affairs.

Perhaps a pilgrim?

Mr Rothwell has not ruled out the prospect of the donor being a pilgrim of sorts passing through the area.

“We do sometimes get what we call ‘road angels’ who walk up the valley,” he said, adding that just a few weeks ago a walker had asked to sleep in the church on his way up to Scotland.

At St Mary’s in Kirkby Lonsdale, the mystery donor is said to have handed over three “brand new” gold coins in-person to the rector.

Robert Cass, treasurer of the local parochial church council at the time, recalled that the man “actually came to the rectory and handed it over”, adding that he had “said something like ‘I don’t need these’.”

The Telegraph was told that the individual who received the coins, catching perhaps one of the only glimpses of the mystery donor, has since moved out of town and become uncontactable in retirement.

The Rev Anne Pettifor, the area vicar, said Holy Trinity in nearby Casterton, Cumbria, had also received three gold coins and the two churches had paired up to sell all six earlier this year for nearly £20,000.

“Certainly for Casterton, it has made a big difference,” she said. “It is a miraculous thing because they were struggling and they were anxious.”

‘God provides’

St Paul’s Church in Caton-with-Littledale is also understood to have received an undisclosed amount of coins and St Thomas’ in Garstang noted in its annual report for 2022 that it had received an “anonymous gift of three gold coins” in July which later sold for £4,293.

Stephen Potter, churchwarden of St Peter’s in Quernmore, where three gold Britannia coins were pushed under the back door four summers ago, said they felt the gift was divine intervention.

“There is no doubt it did help us with our finances that year,” he said of the £4,500 which the church received for the coins, adding: “We were tremendously grateful. A gift like that always seems to come at the right time, when we feel we’re struggling. It is as if God suddenly provides just when we need it.”

On the line of churches which had benefited, he said: “It is as if somebody came through on a particular route and stopped off at various churches along the route and deposited the coins on the route.

“For whatever reason, this person has decided to gift them. It is obviously a very personal thing and they wish to remain anonymous – in part we want to respect that.

“God moves in mysterious ways. He has used that gift in a particular way for that particular church.”

In the battle rural parishes have against decreasing populations and decaying buildings, Mr Potter said the coins had instilled a sense of belief that hard work would eventually win out.

He said: “You think this kind of philanthropy might be spreading the jam too thin but for rural churches small gifts like this, the boost it gives to people’s confidence, is immeasurable.”

A spokesman for the churches involved emphasised that no donations were left on the premises overnight.

[Source: Daily Telegraph]