Deep mystery still surrounds the ownership of gold and silver coins which were scratched out of a hole at the foot of a hedge in West Ward, Luton, last Thursday evening by a mongrel dog belonging to Mr and Mrs Joseph Janes, of 108 Maple Road.

Floss, the canine hero of the adventure, was out on a ramble at six o'clock with Reginald Janes, aged 10, and John Williamson, another Maple Road boy, and when she glued her nose to a hole, which is near a factory, the lads thought she was ratting.

Presently, however, Floss pawed out a piece of newspaper, and when the boys got to the spot they saw a cluster of sovereigns and half-sovereigns rolling out of the pocket in the soil. The dog kept on scratching and more coins - some silver, but most of them gold - toppled out.

The lads, however, had not altogether sensed the value of the find, and Reginald gave another Maple Road boy named Ward a couple of half-sovereigns, thinking they were very bright farthings. Later he was going to give two more golden coins to a boy for a two shillings piece. The latter had evidently realised that everything the glittered in this case was gold.

At her home on Monday morning, Mrs Janes told a Luton News reporter that her son Reginald told her on reaching home that several boys who attended Beech Hill School came upon the scene and knocked the smaller boys over, took some of the scattered coins, and ran away.

"My boy brought home several half-sovereigns and a sovereign. I took them to the police station the same night, and Me Williamson went with me and took the coins his boy had brought home," said Mrs Janes.

Asked if she had any idea of the number of coins that were found in the hole, Mrs Janes replied that she could not say, though she added that her boy had said he had given a lot away.

"The lads started pelting each other with the money, I believe, and on Saturday night when I was in a shop in Shaftesbury Road, two little boys came in and the talked turned upon the money my dog Floss had found. One of the boys said they had found some of it."

Mrs Janes said most of the coined were dated 1914 and the date of the newspaper they were wrapped in was quite recent.

No loss of any considerable sum has been reported to the police, and the official view is that the money is either the proceeds of a robbery or the hoard of an eccentric person. In the event of its not being claimed the amount will, after a lapse of a certain period, go to the finders.

[The Saturday Telegraph, March 27th, 1915; The Luton News, April 1st, 1915]