When Sandy Pearce decided to do some gardening at her Katanning home one morning, little did she know it would uncover an ANZAC mystery that would span across two centuries.
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“I was weeding the garden by hand, when I felt some metal,” Ms Pearce said.
“At first I thought it was nothing then out with the weeds came some small tin soldiers.”
As she worked along the garden bed, Sandy found an assortment of items, including a large bronze coin.
“At first I thought the stuff belonged to someone in my family, but no-one recognised it,” Ms Pearce said.
Giving most of the stuff to her sister, Sandy decided to keep the bronze coin.
“Back then, we didn’t have computers so I kept the bronze coin, unsure what to do with it,” she said.
After moving to Collie, Ms Pearce forgot about the coin, which sat in storage for 30 years.
“About six years ago I started researching my own family history at the Collie Family History Society and then I remembered that I had that coin,” Ms Pearce said.
“I did a little research and five years later I found that it belonged to a Kiwi soldier.”
“It was just pure luck – it really depends who puts their family tree online.”
The coin was identified as a Memorial Plaque - also known as a ‘Dead Man’s Penny’ – which was given to given to the next-of-kin of all British and Empire service personnel who were killed as a result of war.
ANZAC George Robert Scott Greene died of wounds in France in 1918 and the coin issued to his sister, who lived in Perth.
At this point, it is unclear how the penny came to be buried in Katanning – but the most likely scenario was that it was stolen from the owners and buried in the garden.
Forgotten, the coin sat undisturbed for decades until discovered by Sandy.
Ms Pearce managed to track down the living relatives of George Robert Scott Greene, in Nelson, New Zealand.
“They were so grateful, they couldn’t thank me enough,” Ms Pearce said.
“It is wonderful feeling to give a family some closure on a fallen ANZAC family member.”
Jane Tito listed her great-great-uncle on her family tree on ancestry.com.
In July last year, she received a message from Ms Pearce via informing her of the coin.
"I could hardly believe it," Mrs Tito told The Nelson Mail.
"I just thought what a wonderful person this woman is for sending it to me."
Upon receiving the medallion in the mail in January, Tito said she got goosebumps.
"It's something that I will treasure forever," she said.
