NEWS LITE : MYSTERY DONOR'S GOLDEN GIFT TRADITION EXPANDING.

The tradition continues - in Nashville.

Someone dropped an 1879 gold coin into a Salvation Army kettle outside an insurance office here Friday, keeping alive a yuletide tradition dating to 1982 that previously had been limited to Chicago.

The coin was wrapped inside a copy of a Wall Street Journal article about the mysterious Chicago donor who has been dropping coins into Salvation Army kettles for years, including earlier this month.

Except for a couple of years in the late '80s, at least one gold coin has appeared in a Chicago kettle every year since.

Friday's coin was believed to be Nashville's first.

The coin has a face value of $5, but is worth about $140, said Bart Dennis of the Nashville Gold Market. It would be worth more, if not for a slightly worn appearance.

The coin is one of about 260,000 that were minted between 1840 and 1908.

Irate father gives Santa a red nose

He was waiting to have his child's photo snapped with Santa Claus, but a fuming father did the snapping: He punched Santa in the nose, then ran off into a crowd.

Santa wasn't seriously hurt.

The man had stood in line ``a long time'' at an outdoor holiday fair Friday night waiting for the photo, said police Lt. Chuck Braddy.

When Santa's helpers ran out of film, ``one of the fathers got upset over the fact that I guess it was taking them a while to replace the film supply,'' Braddy said.

``So he got upset and punched Santa in the nose, then he and the child disappeared into the crowd,'' he said.

``Santa, who was not injured badly, opted to not pursue the matter,'' so police did not investigate.

Onassis' estate not as vast as reported

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis' estate was worth far less than was widely estimated at the time of her death, and her two children will get most of her assets, leaving very little for charity, according to the state Attorney General's Office.

The former first lady's executors valued her estate at $43.7 million, court documents show, though the fantastic prices some of her property brought at auction have prompted an IRS audit to determine whether its true value was closer to $73 million.

In any case, the amount falls well short of the estimates of $100 million or more in many news reports after her death in 1994. So far, less than $500,000 of the estate has gone to a nonprofit organization, the John F. Kennedy Library near Boston.

Onassis' will left her two children valuable properties, ranging from a Martha's Vineyard retreat to stocks. But it also gave them the option of letting some or all of these properties pass to a charitable trust, which would have made annual donations to charities for 24 years and then dissolved, passing the money on to Onassis' grandchildren.

The device of the charitable trust was essentially a way for her children, Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg and John F. Kennedy Jr., to allow some of her assets to pass to her grandchildren without paying estate taxes. But there was no requirement in the will that any money go to the trust, and the children apparently have determined that it makes more financial sense for them to pay the estate taxes and invest the balance.

The trust would have been called the C&J Foundation, after the first initials of the children.

Onassis' executors have told the state that after distributing the property that the children decided to keep, making specific bequests and paying administrative expenses, the estate has $18 million, but owes $23 million in estate taxes.

``Given the administrative expenses and the taxes and the consequences of the choices of the children, there will not be a residuary to create the C&J Foundation,'' said Jennifer Farina, a spokesman for Attorney General Dennis Vacco.

The $5 million shortfall - which the children are liable for - almost certainly means that ``there will not be a C&J Foundation,'' said Sean Delaney, chief of the attorney general's charities bureau.

Alexander Forger, one of the executors, confirmed that Onassis' charitable lead annuity trust does not exist, though he would not rule out the possibility that it might still be created.

CAPTION(S):

Photo

Photo: (1) Happy to oblige

Jimmy Carter signs copies of his new book ``Living Faith'' at a San Francisco bookstore, where nearly 1,000 people turned out to see the former president.

Associated Press