Krugerrand coin donation a bright spot in Salvation Army's bittersweet 2023 giving season

Erin Udell, Fort Collins Coloradoan
·2 min read
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In this file photo, Salvation Army bell ringer Robert Thompson holds a well-worn bell while collecting donations on Dec. 21, 2018, in front of the Hobby Lobby on South College Avenue in Fort Collins.
In this file photo, Salvation Army bell ringer Robert Thompson holds a well-worn bell while collecting donations on Dec. 21, 2018, in front of the Hobby Lobby on South College Avenue in Fort Collins.

A rare gold Krugerrand coin was pulled from a Salvation Army kettle in south Fort Collins late last month, continuing a 25-year Christmas tradition for the city.

The 1-ounce coin, valued at around $2,100, was found in the kettle outside the John F. Kennedy Parkway King Soopers on Dec. 22, local Salvation Army Corps Officer Genesis Apuan told the Coloradoan. The mysterious — and (mostly) annual — donation of a Krugerrand coin started in Fort Collins in 1998, when an anonymous donor dropped off one of the valuable South African gold coins in a local red kettle in the weeks leading up to Christmas.

The most recent Krugerrand donation marked the third in a row that the coin was dropped in the same King Soopers kettle, which is manned each year by bell ringer Luis Salazar.

Salvation Army bell ringer Luis Salazar poses with the gold Krugerrand coin that was dropped in his Fort Collins kettle before Christmas. This marks the second year in a row that Salazar's kettle received Fort Collins' Christmas Krugerrand.
Salvation Army bell ringer Luis Salazar poses with the gold Krugerrand coin that was dropped in his Fort Collins kettle before Christmas. This marks the second year in a row that Salazar's kettle received Fort Collins' Christmas Krugerrand.

The timing of this year's Krugerrand donation kept Apuan and his team of volunteer counters on their toes. When it came through just before Christmas, they breathed a sigh of relief, he told the Coloradoan Thursday.

A buyer has since offered to purchase the coin for $2,100, bringing the Salvation Army's total Fort Collins kettle donations to $76,000 for 2023, according to Apuan.

While the Krugerrand tradition lives on in Fort Collins, this most recent kettle season was marked by a slight dip in donations and bell ringer participation, Apuan said, noting that the kettles collected $89,000 in donations in 2022.

While the program utilizes volunteer bell ringers from local service organizations and businesses, it also hired a dozen bell ringers to man its six Fort Collins kettles late last year, Apuan said. Of those, only three showed up to work consistently, leaving some kettles out of commission on certain days. The campaign also experienced a serious blow with the 2023 death of veteran bell ringer Robert Thompson.

In this file photo, Salvation Army bell ringer Robert Thompson wishes a customer a merry Christmas as he holds the door open on Dec. 21, 2018, in front of the Hobby Lobby on South College Avenue in Fort Collins. Thompson, who died in 2023, was a longtime bell ringer for The Salvation Army, and his kettle netted the Krugerrand coin multiple times.
In this file photo, Salvation Army bell ringer Robert Thompson wishes a customer a merry Christmas as he holds the door open on Dec. 21, 2018, in front of the Hobby Lobby on South College Avenue in Fort Collins. Thompson, who died in 2023, was a longtime bell ringer for The Salvation Army, and his kettle netted the Krugerrand coin multiple times.

For years, Thompson spent his holiday vacation from his regular full-time job bell ringing for The Salvation Army each December, Apuan said. He was a fixture outside Fort Collins' Hobby Lobby store, and his kettle netted the much-anticipated Krugerrand coin five times, according to his obituary.

So what's the deal with this gold coin? Here's a deep dive into how Fort Collins' Krugerrand mystery got started

This article originally appeared on Fort Collins Coloradoan: Fort Collins' mysterious Krugerrand tradition lives on another year