Truffle-hunting puppy becomes gold-digger - Finds £6000 Worth of Gold Sovereigns

[LawrenceChard]

An article on page 15 of today's Daily Telegraph has this story:

Truffle-hunting puppy becomes gold-digger as it unearths buried treasure on first walk
Ollie, a Lagotto Romagnolo, stumbled upon a small fortune at just ten weeks old

It was also online yesterday:

By
Telegraph Reporters
20 April 2022 • 3:13pm

A gold-digging puppy has sniffed out sovereign coins worth nearly £6,000 on its first walk.

Adam Clark, 51, bought Ollie, a Lagotto Romagnolo, as a surprise for his daughter Alicia, nine, last month.

The breed is notorious for digging - especially for truffles. On its first walk around the local fields on March 30, the young dog stumbled upon a small fortune.

To his owner’s disbelief, Ollie instinctively dug up a total of 15 gold sovereign pieces dating as far back as the nineteenth century.

Mr Clark, who works in property, took the coins to be examined by Chards in Blackpool, one of the country’s leading gold dealers, which valued them at £5,943.96.

While the landlord is “thrilled” with the return from the treasure, he believes the real prize is Ollie himself, dubbing the canine his very own “gold hunter”.

‘I couldn’t quite believe it’
Mr Clark, from Blackpool, Lancs, said: “When we got him we thought he seemed special. Alicia was over the moon and we couldn’t wait to take him out for his first walk around the gala fields.

“We’d literally been walking for around 10 minutes when Ollie suddenly stopped and started frantically digging away at the soil.

“That’s when he uncovered the pile of gold pieces - I couldn’t quite believe it.

“The treasure is one thing, but, the fact is, I’ve bought myself my very own gold hunter, and I cannot wait to take him out again.

“He is obviously a very special pup and I’m thrilled with what he brings to the table - quite literally!”

Ollie found the coins when it was just 10 weeks old.

Mr Clark added: “I have an allergy to animal hair so we were restricted on what dog we could get.

“We got him from a breeder in Manchester and my daughter connected with him instantly - they’re best friends.

“He cost me £2,000 so after sniffing out the gold he tripled my investment which is always a bonus!”

 

[SilverDrum]

 

[LawrenceChard]

23 minutes ago, SilverDrum said:

 

I missed that yesterday, you should have tagged me into it!

😎

[LawrenceChard]

2 hours ago, LawrenceChard said:

An article on page 15 of today's Daily Telegraph has this story:

Truffle-hunting puppy becomes gold-digger as it unearths buried treasure on first walk
Ollie, a Lagotto Romagnolo, stumbled upon a small fortune at just ten weeks old

It was also online yesterday:

By
Telegraph Reporters
20 April 2022 • 3:13pm

A gold-digging puppy has sniffed out sovereign coins worth nearly £6,000 on its first walk.

Adam Clark, 51, bought Ollie, a Lagotto Romagnolo, as a surprise for his daughter Alicia, nine, last month.

The breed is notorious for digging - especially for truffles. On its first walk around the local fields on March 30, the young dog stumbled upon a small fortune.

To his owner’s disbelief, Ollie instinctively dug up a total of 15 gold sovereign pieces dating as far back as the nineteenth century.

Mr Clark, who works in property, took the coins to be examined by Chards in Blackpool, one of the country’s leading gold dealers, which valued them at £5,943.96.

While the landlord is “thrilled” with the return from the treasure, he believes the real prize is Ollie himself, dubbing the canine his very own “gold hunter”.

‘I couldn’t quite believe it’
Mr Clark, from Blackpool, Lancs, said: “When we got him we thought he seemed special. Alicia was over the moon and we couldn’t wait to take him out for his first walk around the gala fields.

“We’d literally been walking for around 10 minutes when Ollie suddenly stopped and started frantically digging away at the soil.

“That’s when he uncovered the pile of gold pieces - I couldn’t quite believe it.

“The treasure is one thing, but, the fact is, I’ve bought myself my very own gold hunter, and I cannot wait to take him out again.

“He is obviously a very special pup and I’m thrilled with what he brings to the table - quite literally!”

Ollie found the coins when it was just 10 weeks old.

Mr Clark added: “I have an allergy to animal hair so we were restricted on what dog we could get.

“We got him from a breeder in Manchester and my daughter connected with him instantly - they’re best friends.

“He cost me £2,000 so after sniffing out the gold he tripled my investment which is always a bonus!”

 

I had to iron out a crease in my newspaper before I could scan the Telegraph print edition article:

Funnily enough, our local newspaper "The Gazette" has not yet run the story.

😎

[Oddjob]

Saw this story earlier today....Only got the short Daily Mail version not the longer Telegraph article above with reference to the svo's being inspected by Chards.

When I saw the Daily Mail pics (re below), I thought it looked a tad sus....no coin unless wrapped in heavy wax paper would look that good after 100 years in the ground...thus my question to @LawrenceChard is do you know what condition these coins were presented to Chards in...dirty but Chard cleaned them...did old mate claim he cleaned them himself??

 

[LawrenceChard]

29 minutes ago, Oddjob said:

Saw this story earlier today....Only got the short Daily Mail version not the longer Telegraph article above with reference to the svo's being inspected by Chards.

When I saw the Daily Mail pics (re below), I thought it looked a tad sus....no coin unless wrapped in heavy wax paper would look that good after 100 years in the ground...thus my question to @LawrenceChard is do you know what condition these coins were presented to Chards in...dirty but Chard cleaned them...did old mate claim he cleaned them himself??

 

We didn't clean them, alhtough we do use an ultrasonic cleaning tank, and I used to boil dirty gold coins in soapy water.

Apart from that I don't know, but I suspect they didn't need cleaning.

He did not tell us about the dog find when he first showed them to us, or when he later sold them.

The first we knew about the dog find was when the journalist contacted us.

But it must all be true because it was in the Daily Mail / Sun / Mirror / Telegraph / Metro / Sunday Times / and a few others.

😎

[MJCOIN]

2 hours ago, LawrenceChard said:

We didn't clean them, alhtough we do use an ultrasonic cleaning tank, and I used to boil dirty gold coins in soapy water.

Apart from that I don't know, but I suspect they didn't need cleaning.

He did not tell us about the dog find when he first showed them to us, or when he later sold them.

The first we knew about the dog find was when the journalist contacted us.

But it must all be true because it was in the Daily Mail / Sun / Mirror / Telegraph / Metro / Sunday Times / and a few others.

😎

* coughs *

[LawrenceChard]

As often, I looked up the dog breed, Lagotto Romagnolo, because I had never heard of it.

The Lagotto is a breed of water retriever from the lowlands of Comacchio...

I have visited Comacchio, which has lagoons, and canals, rather like a less well known version of Venice.

[Roy]

Two questions, if I may?

Who the hell pays £2000 for a dog?

What was the youngest date coin @LawrenceChard?

(ok, technically, that's 3!)

[LawrenceChard]

2 minutes ago, Roy said:

Two questions, if I may?

Who the hell pays £2000 for a dog?

What was the youngest date coin @LawrenceChard?

(ok, technically, that's 3!)

a) Lots of people apparently.

b) Don't know / remember. I think the purchase happened weeks ago. I am informed there were also some other coins. Someone reminded me today that there were some sub-standard or ex-jewellery ones included.

As an example, I checked through about 150 sovereigns yesterday, and perhaps 50 to 60 various coins today.

😎

[Roy]

'Local fields'

There's usually a landowner somewhere 🙄

[Foster88]

5 hours ago, Roy said:

Who the hell pays £2000 for a dog?

I too was most shocked by that than a gold-finding dog. 😂

[CANV]

1. This story is almost certainly bollocks

2, This story is Bollocks 

[Foster88]

I always thought that any find classed as ‘treasure’ would have to be reported to a FLO.

Can any metal detectorists shed some light on this?

I’m not presuming he didn’t report it, the article doesn’t seem to say either way.

[Stu]

12 hours ago, Roy said:

Two questions, if I may?

Who the hell pays £2000 for a dog?

What was the youngest date coin @LawrenceChard?

(ok, technically, that's 3!)

Youngest coin was a 2023 sov, very rare🤔

the poor chap would have needed the papers pay out to cover some of the cost of the dog.   
 

I have got one further question, did the sovereigns have an unusual odour of fish?😄

Edited April 22, 2022 by Stu

[GoldDiggerDave]

@Roy £2,000 is the going rate for a decent breed of dog and worth every single penny.   I can stud my boy out for a good quid or the pick of the litter. 

[Dakaras]

9 hours ago, Foster88 said:

I always thought that any find classed as ‘treasure’ would have to be reported to a FLO.

Can any metal detectorists shed some light on this?

I’m not presuming he didn’t report it, the article doesn’t seem to say either way.

Not Flo as it's not over 300 years, but it is treasure so should be reported to corenor

[Oddjob]

20 hours ago, LawrenceChard said:

We didn't clean them, alhtough we do use an ultrasonic cleaning tank, and I used to boil dirty gold coins in soapy water.

Apart from that I don't know, but I suspect they didn't need cleaning.

He did not tell us about the dog find when he first showed them to us, or when he later sold them.

The first we knew about the dog find was when the journalist contacted us.

But it must all be true because it was in the Daily Mail / Sun / Mirror / Telegraph / Metro / Sunday Times / and a few others.

😎

Thanks for the for feedback.

[Dakaras]

Load of tosh re dog imo, if found in the ground at all he was probably detecting without permission, found them, realised he would be in trouble selling them without getting caught so cooked up the dog story . 

It's right up there with, I was birdwatching and saw the glint of gold and went home for detector and I found it in my back garden

Edited April 22, 2022 by Dakaras

[Britannia47]

Hopefully this will be the last post on this matter. I have to say I am appalled by the cynicism shown by TSF members about the veracity of this story. L.C. Missed an opportunity here to catalogue all these sovereigns, issue certificates, with a paw print perhaps, and be as comparable as those found on the  SS Douro, or at auction in the future as famous as the Bentley Collection. As for this being B.S. - Absolutely not!  It’s a classic D.D. (Doggie-Dos) story.🐶🐶🐶

[refero]

On 21/04/2022 at 19:07, Roy said:

Who the hell pays £2000 for a dog?

As italian, i can easily answer to this; Lagotto is widely known as the best dog breed for truffle retrieving. Especially white truffles which easily go for 3-4000 Euros / kg. I have no idea if the story is just invented or not, but 2000 gbp for a selected lagotto puppy is average price. I have no idea again if the owner is just in love with this breed or bought it for commercial purpose (i dont know up there but in Italy truffles are a big thing in the food sector and some people that loves it, like me, wouldnt hesitate to pay 50 euros for a good tagliolini home made past with selected white truffle...

And if you thing about that...we all here share a passion that brings us to over pay little rounded pieces of metal,.... sometimes queueing hours on line or waiting years to get our hands on what we look for.. and we are ready to pay huge prices over spot... if you look from outside it s a non sense neither...

[LawrenceChard]

40 minutes ago, refero said:

As italian, i can easily answer to this; Lagotto is widely known as the best dog breed for truffle retrieving. Especially white truffles which easily go for 3-4000 Euros / kg. I have no idea if the story is just invented or not, but 2000 gbp for a selected lagotto puppy is average price. I have no idea again if the owner is just in love with this breed or bought it for commercial purpose (i dont know up there but in Italy truffles are a big thing in the food sector and some people that loves it, like me, wouldnt hesitate to pay 50 euros for a good tagliolini home made past with selected white truffle...

And if you thing about that...we all here share a passion that brings us to over pay little rounded pieces of metal,.... sometimes queueing hours on line or waiting years to get our hands on what we look for.. and we are ready to pay huge prices over spot... if you look from outside it s a non sense neither...

Some of this may depend which part of Italy you call home.

As you mention taglioni, it sounds like you may be from Piedmont, and truffles suggest Alba.

But are Lagotti Romagnoli any good for hunting cinghiale?

[refero]

34 minutes ago, LawrenceChard said:

Some of this may depend which part of Italy you call home.

As you mention taglioni, it sounds like you may be from Piedmont, and truffles suggest Alba.

But are Lagotti Romagnoli any good for hunting cinghiale?

i m from Tuscany; high quality white truffle can be found in Tuscany (San Miniato/Pisa and across the border with Umbria), in Marche, in Piemonte (Alba of course and Langhe region), in Umbria etc...

Lagotto is the only world-wide breed exclusively specialized for the truffle "hunting". It is a very ancient breed which was originally used as a general "retriever". 

[LawrenceChard]

33 minutes ago, refero said:

i m from Tuscany; high quality white truffle can be found in Tuscany (San Miniato/Pisa and across the border with Umbria), in Marche, in Piemonte (Alba of course and Langhe region), in Umbria etc...

Lagotto is the only world-wide breed exclusively specialized for the truffle "hunting". It is a very ancient breed which was originally used as a general "retriever". 

In that case, I'd be happy to hear your recommendations for a local (to you) restaurant.

We have some old friends who live near Vetulonia, and some others in Lunata, near Lucca.

Both sets are heavily into Italian cuisine, or should that be cucina?

🙂

[refero]

sure, whenever you need, just write me a message, i'd be happy to help