Original subtitles

Tonight on The Curse of Oak Island

- Oh! - Whoa!

- We got wood. - It looks like it might be a new shaft.

- It changes the whole story. - Yeah.

We could be looking at the Money Pit.

There's significant

anomalies in this area.

Wow! That is huge. We need to dig.

- Oh, yeah. - Look at that.

- That is sweet. - Whoa!

This is Roman.

- Roman? - No way.

Definitely from 300 BC.

Roman, baby!

It's remarkable.

There is an island in the North Atlantic

where people have been looking for

an incredible treasure for more than 200 years.

So far, they have found a stone slab

with strange symbols carved into it...

Man-made workings that date to medieval times,

and a lead cross whose origin may be connected

to the Knights Templar.

To date, six men have died

Trying to solve the mystery.

And according to legend, one more will have to die

before the treasure can be found.

Gentlemen.

What's going on out in the field?

So I want to get you up-to-date

and try to figure out where to go next

- in the Money Pit area. - Okay.

Got different ideas of where the Money Pit might be

- based on different records. - That's right.

As a new day begins on Oak Island,

brothers Rick and Marty Lagina

along with their partner Craig Tester

have gathered for an important meeting

with members of their team in the research center.

We have to take advantage of the fact

that the Garden Shaft project is on hold because it presents

unique opportunities

to conduct more drilling in the Money Pit area.

All right. Good.

Unfortunately, due to permitting issues,

The team's reconstruction of the Garden Shaft

in the Money Pit area, which began one month ago,

is currently on hold.

It is in this 80-foot-deep structure

that Rick, Marty, Craig and the team

have not only collected wood samples

that have been dated to the early 18th century

but also conducted water tests

that yielded high trace evidence of gold.

So let's just summarize what's going on in the Money Pit.

- Yeah. - Yes.

Now, as they await permission

for the project to proceed,

the team must decide how best to continue their pursuit

of the fabled Money Pit treasure vault,

and the ultimate answers to a 228-year-old mystery.

One thing we can discuss while we're right in this area...

You know, you can see what we drilled around there.

We have five holes all along there defining a tunnel.

Right.

So we started out with K-15.5.

- K-15.5? - Yeah.

So we drilled there and we hit a direct hit.

We hit wood around 103 feet.

I mean, it was the first time that we felt

That we had ever drilled into a tunnel that was still open.

Yeah.

Whoa, what's that? Whoa, whoa, what's that?

That's a view down the tunnel.

- Oh, wow. - It's awesome.

One recent discovery that the team

is considering for further investigation

is a five-foot-high wood-cribbed tunnel

which they have encountered at five separate drilling locations

at a depth of 103 feet.

This structure has not only been

carbon-dated to as early as the 17th century

but may also be leading

in the direction of the Garden Shaft.

Here we have a man-made structure underground

at a consistent elevation.

So of course, your mind runs to the possibility

that this tunnel, if it is confirmed,

runs towards the Garden Shaft.

And there might be "X marks the spot"

at the end of that tunnel.

You know, then the question is,

do we continue pursuing this tunnel?

Or is there a want to move to D-17.5?

This one is right offset to the Garden Shaft,

where we could intercept this 70-foot tunnel,

which was first found in D-17.

Five weeks ago,

the team drilled into another tunnel in Borehole D-17,

at a depth of just 70 feet

that they've speculated

could be leading to an offset treasure chamber

extending away from the original Money Pit.

It's odd that it's at that depth.

It almost has to be an offset chamber.

There's no point having an upward facing tunnel, is there?

What makes this an ideal location

for the team to investigate now,

is that it sets just 20 feet south of the Garden Shaft.

Because when they and the team from Dumas Contracting Limited

are given permission to continue with the operation to clear out

and reconstruct a new, waterproof shaft

down to at least the 80-foot depth,

if any evidence of man-made voids or structures

are detected nearby,

Lateral tunnels can be constructed off the main shaft

In order to allow the team to search for potential valuables.

Finding the wood in D-17 is important simply because

it suggests strongly that this is original work.

We've never encountered wood at that elevation before.

So everything that we find, everything we uncover,

will be new to us and thus will be exciting.

So we're actually looking for two things...

the 70-foot and the 100-foot tunnel?

- Yep. - Okay.

So, where are we going next, then?

We should talk about it.

- Yeah. - To me, I guess,

do we want to look for this tunnel

up towards the Garden Shaft at D-17?

We have no records of this tunnel.

Is it a tunnel leading to an offset chamber?

Yeah. Possibly.

So we could drill a well to try to define this D-17 tunnel

- at D-17.5. - Yeah, yeah.

As long as we're getting the gold data,

I guess I'm okay with it.

For me, that's the objective there.

Really get an idea of the orientation of the tunnel.

- Yeah. - So those are my thoughts.

Yeah, okay.

So we're gonna move down to D-17.5.

Good.

I'd like to know more about that thing.

And I would like a water sample, maybe a couple as you go down.

Yes.

So let the data speak.

Let the science speak.

- Let's see where this goes. - Yes.

All right, guys. Let's go.

- Thank you. - Thank you.

Later that morning...

D-17.5.

- This could be it. - All right.

Look, you've got nothing north of you.

So that's why I want you to cover that ground.

- Sweet. - Okay. Go for it.

That's good.

As geologist Terry Matheson

and Oak Island historian Charles Barkhouse

supervise the drilling of Borehole D-17.5

in the Money Pit area...

There we go.

- This is a nice little area of Lot 5. - Okay.

Rick Lagina

and metal detection expert Gary Drayton

Arrive on Lot 5,

located on the western side of Oak Island.

I've already been in here, mate,

and I've put a lot of flags down.

There's a lot of good-sounding targets.

So as far as I'm concerned,

It's raining with a chance of artifacts.

So first flag's over here, mate.

- Okay. - Let's get stuck in.

One week ago, after purchasing this four-acre property

from the estate of Robert Young,

who passed away in 2020...

This is the in past now, mate.

To the future.

- Let's get started. - Okay.

Rick and Gary quickly unearthed

several potentially important clues.

Look at that.

These include two possible iron chisels

and a cut, hammered coin which metallurgy analysis

suggests could date back to the 16th century or earlier.

All right.

That sounds good.

Now, after flagging a number

of additional metal targets in the area,

Gary and Rick have received permission

from archaeologist Laird Niven

to find out what other potential answers Lot 5 may reveal

about the Oak Island mystery.

The ground is so rocky.

Come on, little artifacts.

Yep, that's it.

What do we got here, mate?

What the heck... is that?

If you don't know, I don't know.

- I mean, what...? - It's a metal acorn.

Yeah, that's what I was thinking as well.

This really is nuts.

Yeah, I don't know what that is.

It's heavy, it's crude.

It's not perfect.

You can see it's not factory-made.

I mean, feel how heavy that is, mate.

Huh, it's heavy.

- Yeah. - It's very dense.

And the interesting thing about this is

we're like maybe

30 feet away from where we found that piece of bell metal.

One year ago,

while searching on the adjacent Lot 4,

Gary and Jack Begley found a piece of bell metal,

which chemist Dr. Christa Brosseau believed

may have been a fragment of an ancient cannon

and possibly Portuguese in origin.

Okay, mate, we're bagging it

- 'cause it looks old. - Yep.

Is it possible that Rick and Gary

have found another clue on Lot 5

that could help identify just who may have been behind

the 228-year-old treasure mystery?

So next flag...

Somewhere in here.

Not bad.

- Yep. Not bad sounding. - Just there.

I'm going to take me jacket off cause I mean business now.

Things are hotting up.

Okay, let's see if you moved it.

And you've moved it 'cause it sounds better.

- Oh, what's that? - It's singing.

Wow! Look at that.

It's singing.

Oh, I love these little finds, mate.

It's a musket ball. Yeah.

On Lot 5, located on the western side of Oak Island,

Rick Lagina and Gary Drayton have just found

what could be a very important clue.

Might not have been fired but...

- Doesn't look fired. - Yeah.

But I love it when we find stuff like this, I mean,

you're going back to black powder weapons.

So you know you're going back.

Maybe you're talking late 1500s.

Yeah.

A musket ball?

Potentially dating back to the 16th century?

Could it be related to the ancient tools

and the hammered coin that were also

recently found on Lot 5?

If so, who brought them here?

And just what were they doing on Oak Island?

And there is a way to date this, mate.

We can measure the diameter

and see what caliber it is

because this does seem on the small side.

- Well, that is baggable. - Yeah, definitely.

That is a bona fide artifact.

This is just the beginning of the story, mate.

The following day...

- Good morning, gentlemen. - Hi, fellas.

- Hey, guys. - Hi.

- Morning. - Stephan,

I know that you post-processed the grid

on the north end of the swamp and I personally am

- very interested in it. - Rick Lagina

gathers in the war room with members of the team

to meet via video conference

with ground penetrating radar expert, Stephan Grund.

We all know that prior to his passing,

Fred was kind enough to inform us

of a possibility of a log structure

in the north end of the swamp.

So I very much look forward to this

because if there's a log wall there, that is huge.

That-That's original work.

If it's there.

- Okay, I'm good to go. - Yep.

One week ago,

following a preliminary geophysical scan of the swamp

which identified a curious

underground anomaly near the northern border,

Stephan conducted a follow-up ground penetrating radar scan

of the area with Rick and Marty's nephew Peter Fornetti

- and landowner Tom Nolan. - Thank you.

It was in this same area

on Lot 10 where Tom's late father Fred Nolan

found evidence of what he believed

could be a man-made dam.

A dam that may have been constructed centuries ago

to create the triangle-shaped swamp

in order to hide something of great value.

I'm gonna let you tell us what you learned.

Yes, definitely.

Now, having fully processed

his GPR data,

Stephan is prepared to review his findings with the team.

So let me start with the scans with the OKM Geppard GPR.

We do see significant anomalies in this area.

Coming from the left to the right

at around three feet depth.

I quickly want to open another scan.

This is very interesting

because we do see here again

anomalies cut in the middle of the grid

from the left to the right

and those are between two and eight feet depth.

So it's a duplication more or less.

Wow.

Numerous anomalies

running in a linear pattern

between three and eight feet deep

just north of the swamp?

Could it be evidence to support Fred Nolan's theory

regarding a potential man-made dam?

The information that Stephan relayed to us,

I found it incredibly intriguing.

His interpretation of the data suggests

a linear anomaly is in an area that Fred thought was certainly

worthy of further investigation.

I believe that Fred was truthful about probing

such a structure or finding such a structure.

And I think if you come to a point

where you think a target is legit,

then you need to dig.

Well, thank you for that because it's very curious.

Craig, do you have any thoughts?

Just, uh, I mean, get Tom involved, um, obviously.

So it'll be interesting to see

what he thinks about this location.

Yeah, 100%.

The next steps would be obviously to inform Tom.

And then it would be up to Tom to decide how to proceed.

My hope is, after hearing there is an anomaly there,

that Tom will acquiesce to, to dig.

Anyways, Stephan, I hate to say it,

but... you're gonna be getting a lot more data.

I'm looking forward to it.

- Fair enough. - Careful what you wish for.

Great.

Thank you very much.

Appreciate it.

As Rick and members of the team

finish their meeting in the war room,

in the Money Pit area...

- Looks like we got a core coming. - Yep.

Terry Matheson and Charles Barkhouse continue

supervising the drilling operation in Borehole D-17.5...

Thank you.

Where they hope to once again

penetrate a mysterious tunnel

at a depth of some 70 feet.

39 feet.

- Thank you. - Got some wood at the bottom of that.

That's the bottom. What?

We got some wood at the bottom of this.

- 39? - Well, 39. How about that?

We've got wood.

- That's odd. - Okay.

At 39 feet.

That's an interesting outcome, don't you think, Charles?

- Scalpel, please. - Scalpel.

Thank you. Wow!

Charles, what we got is wood.

We got a lot of wood here, too.

A large quantity of wood?

At a depth of just 39 feet in Borehole D-17.5?

And less than 20 feet south of the Garden Shaft?

This is really interesting, Charles.

It's just...

A tunnel at 39 feet

- does not make sense. - No, it doesn't.

I'm wondering if we caught an edge of a shaft.

If the team has in fact

encountered a wooden shaft, who built it?

Was it simply previous treasure hunters

during the 19th or 20th centuries?

Or might it have been someone who visited the island

much earlier to hide something of great value?

I'm going to let Craig know,

but let's just leave everything on the table.

Absolutely.

You know, there's so much

that we don't know about the Money Pit area.

There's a number of tunnels.

There's a number of shafts that we know nothing about.

A piece right there.

You look at the history.

This is 220-some years of searches.

If this was easy,

this would have been solved a long time ago.

Charles!

I want answers, not more questions.

Yeah.

Ta-da.

So there's a nice little chunk of wood right there,

a split beam or something, we're not sure.

- But... - But it's upright.

- Yeah, it seems to be somewhat. - Yeah.

Seems to be an upright, yeah.

Now we have the possibility

of some kind of shaft rather than a tunnel.

- Right. - At that unusual depth.

It's got to be a shaft. But which one?

It's got to be between the spot we're drilling

- and the Garden Shaft. - Yeah. - Yeah.

I was really hoping that D-17.5

was a tunnel at 70 feet

and led to the vault or a side chamber.

The big surprise was, down 39 feet,

we start hitting wood, and it was telling us right away,

"You are in a shaft."

What shaft?

We don't have a clue, uh, but a big, big surprise.

We were going, looking for a tunnel, found a shaft.

I think we have to kind of chase this

and figure out what this is.

Yeah, it's a major, major change.

Yes.

- It changes the whole story. - Yep.

We need to get Rick out here.

- Hey, guys. - Gentlemen.

- What do we got? - We got a shaft, Marty.

In the Money Pit area...

- A new shaft. - Yep.

Rick and Marty Lagina,

along with Billy Gerhardt,

have joined members of the team

where they have just made

a surprising discovery in Borehole D-17.5.

At 38 to 39, intersected

a nice little chunk of beam or something,

more or less vertically.

And then we've got a ton of wood here.

So we're starting to think maybe the 70-foot was not a tunnel.

A piece of a shaft.

- Yeah. - So it's yet another unknown shaft.

- Yeah. - Exactly.

This happens a lot on Oak Island.

We're drilling to try and identify

what we were sure was a tunnel at 70 feet,

and we're drilling to confirm which way this tunnel goes.

Well, lo and behold,

what we find out is, it's not a tunnel at all.

Totally unknown to us,

a shaft that is not on any maps

or referred to as I know it

by anybody.

What's that?

So that to me looks like a pit saw,

where you have somebody below and somebody above.

Yeah, all right. That's-that's an ancient,

- ancient way of cutting. - For sure. - Yeah.

That's how they made milled lumber

before the age of sawmills.

Wood?

Potentially cut with a pit saw?

Dating back to the time of ancient Rome,

this process of sawing lumber

was widely adopted by Europeans in the 15th century

and utilized until the Industrial Age

when it was replaced by mechanical sawmills.

I don't think that was cut with a circular saw.

Is it possible

that this structure predates the discovery

of the Money Pit in 1795?

If so,

might it be the breakthrough the team needs in order to solve

the 228-year-old mystery?

You can see that that has the touch of man there.

It's relatively irregular and uneven.

So a pit saw would give an indication that it was older.

So, do you think there's any way this is pre-searcher?

I don't know.

I-I-I don't know.

There shouldn't be a shaft there if that's Shaft Two.

The shafts that you don't know should be a lot older.

Yeah. It's more likely to be older.

- You can't dispute that. - No.

We're not sure what the Garden Shaft is.

We're not sure what number two is.

We're not sure what this one is, so...

- Yes. - Yeah.

That's it.

Here we go.

- Hey, Mike. - What's the word?

You think we're probably going inside

of a shaft at this point in time?

I'd say so, yeah.

To me, at this point in time,

we just want to get to the bottom

- of this shaft, so... - Yeah.

We've got to chase the wood as far as it goes.

We need to know the bottom.

Yeah.

Well, let's see what's below.

- Keep going. - Right on.

Thanks, Mike.

All right. Good.

- Carry on. - Good luck.

Later that afternoon...

- Steve, you have all the data, right? - Yep.

Rick Lagina, along with fellow Oak Island landowner

Tom Nolan

and other members of the team,

arrive on Lot 10, just north

of the mysterious triangle-shaped swamp.

Based on the data that Peter gave me,

I calculated where the center of the anomaly is.

This is the center location.

So the anomaly itself is 12 feet by 15 feet,

and this is the center point.

Having reviewed the GPR data collected on his property,

Tom has given Rick

and the rest of the team his blessing

to excavate in search of a potential man-made dam

that may lie buried in this area.

So that's kind of the anomaly.

All the way across our grid.

Tom, I don't, I don't know

if you've noticed this on Zena's map before.

But...

You see where it says

- "the basin..." - Yeah.

And "the dam."

It shows right here.

Tucked right in, right, right where we are.

- This anomaly could be that dam. - Interesting.

In 2016,

the late author and researcher Zena Halpern

presented Rick, Marty and the team

with a reported 14th century map of Oak Island

that she believed had been made

by members of the Knights Templar.

It featured a number of marked locations,

including what appeared to be the original Money Pit,

the swamp, and the dam.

A dam which appears to be in the same location

as the GPR anomaly that the team is about to dig.

We've been trying to judge this map on its merits, right?

Because we don't know its provenance, so...

it'd be really interesting if there is a wall.

Oh, if there was something here, it'd be huge.

On a number of levels.

Let's bring in a machine and dig it.

- Let's go get it. - Okay.

- I say we don't dig past the stakes. - Yeah.

There's no question that my anticipation of a dig

on the Lot 10 anomaly

is high for me, the interest is high...

Right here's the center location, Billy.

Okay.

For two reasons...

Fred certainly believed that it was there,

and the fact that Zena's map indicates a dam at the basin.

I'd love nothing better than for us

to ground truth something

regarding the designation on Zena's map.

As Billy Gerhardt carefully

excavates the possible man-made anomaly...

I'd say we're about

- three feet down right now. - Yep.

Gary Drayton will search the spoils

with his metal detector

for any potentially important clues

or valuables.

Oh, Gary's got a hit.

- Yeah, we've gotten a hit, Pete. - That's a good sign.

Let's see if I can pinpoint it for you before we start digging.

It might be close to the surface.

On it.

Wow.

Wow! Look at this.

Got like a piece of iron here.

While searching for evidence of a man-made dam

just north of the Oak Island swamp...

Right there.

I'm hoping this is an old find.

Members of the team have just made

a potentially significant discovery.

Fairly chunky.

It could be like an old iron pin.

I'd say it is.

Which you'd expect in an old wooden wall.

To me, it looks like wrought iron.

That's a perfect candidate for the XRF.

We've found over the years

that the higher the purity,

the interpretation is that it's older.

Yeah, it'd be interesting

- if we could get an idea how old it is. - Yeah.

It's a spike.

Might have been used when a log wall,

as Fred suggested, might have been constructed.

But what we need to do is

some scientific analysis, some metallurgy on it.

If it's pre-1795, before the discovery

of the Money Pit, well, that would be very interesting.

That didn't float in.

It didn't float in. No.

Somebody put this here.

- Gary? - Yep.

See the piece of wood that's, that's out of the bucket?

Just ahead of your foot.

- This? - Yeah.

It seems to have some kind of oil on it.

- Yeah. - That's been shaped.

Let's see what you think. There's a lot of that there.

Is that oil or creosote?

No, that's not creosote.

No, that's not.

You know they put oil on wood for a lot longer than creosote.

Wood? Covered in oil?

Dating back to as early as 400 BC,

oil was widely used in Asia

for the purpose of protecting sailing vessels

and structures from long-term exposure to water.

Beginning in the 13th century AD,

this manufacturing technique was also used in Europe

until a tar-based substance known as creosote

replaced it in the 1800s.

That's not creosote, that's for sure.

Is it possible that the team has found

another clue supporting Fred Nolan's belief

that an artificial dam

lies buried just north of the swamp,

and also corroborate

Zena Halpern's reported 14th century Templar map,

which indicates a dam feature in this area on Oak Island?

How deep do you think we are, Billy?

Eight feet.

- Eight feet? - Yep.

We need to go at least three more.

Okay.

A big old log on there?

- There we go. - We got a log

and we got a plank here as well.

Like a board.

There's a piece of board.

And that's definitely a piece of shaped board.

Oh, that's deep.

Here you go, mate.

That's interesting. That's been shaped.

It's an interesting find.

It's possibly associated with

a construct in an area where there should be something.

Which may imply original work

prior to when the Money Pit was discovered

because there has been no historical narrative about

any of the searchers doing that type of work in the swamp.

If you come around this side,

you probably can see the different layers,

three or four feet down.

Down there.

You can see the layers going down.

Then you've got peat.

And then you've got this clay.

So...

Yeah, you would think anything below that

is original ground.

So, how much deeper do you want to go?

I think this is a bigger dig.

Mm-hmm.

What you'd have to do is get a proper permit.

It's the only way you'd know for sure.

- That you didn't miss it. - Yeah.

The whole point of this exercise is to prove

that what Tom's father Fred found... a dam... exists.

The way to address that is by getting the proper permits.

Okay, we'll reassess.

This is not an area that we put an "X" through.

As Rick and members of the team finish their work on Lot 10...

What do you think, Mike?

Back in the Money Pit area...

I think it's the bottom of the shaft.

All right, excellent. Thank you.

Craig Tester, Charles Barkhouse,

and Terry Matheson continue to oversee

the core-drilling operation in Borehole D-17.5.

- What you got, Brandon? - 109.

- 109. - 109, here it comes.

It is here, just 18 feet south of the Garden Shaft,

where they are drilling down

through a mysterious wooden shaft in order to find out

just where or what it may lead to.

Oh, yeah, there we go.

Very big chunk.

What do you think, guys?

I think it's wood.

I dare say, eh. That's great.

- I got some more right here. - Yep.

You got one here, boys.

Check that out.

And that's a solid chunk.

That is a solid chunk of beam right there.

Oh, my God, I can't believe it. Look at that, gentlemen.

Wow.

- Check that out. - Yeah.

- See where the axe fell in there? - Yeah.

You can almost see the arc of the leading edge

of the axe, I would say.

- Which makes it very old. - Yes.

In Borehole D-17.5,

Craig Tester and members of the Oak Island team

have just found more evidence more than 100 feet deep

that the mysterious shaft they have encountered

was cut by hand,

meaning that it could predate

the discovery of the original Money Pit in 1795.

That might have enough tree rings

and body to it that we can get a good dendro date.

- Absolutely. Excellent. - Yeah.

It would be fantastic if it was pre-searcher, but...

- but who knows at this point in time? - Yeah.

It's interesting that we found

a shaft in this location.

Charles, did you think there was a shaft in this location?

No, I did not.

If the area of the Garden Shaft turns out

to be the Money Pit, then, you know,

we could be looking at a shaft

that was connected into the Money Pit.

- Good point. - So...

This could be the keys to the kingdom right here.

From our historical records,

there shouldn't be any shafts in the area.

This is completely new.

Is it a shaft that the original people,

uh, had put in leading to the treasure?

Is it a searcher shaft that was not documented?

We run into that problem every once in a while.

So we got to do our homework and, uh, figure out what it is.

I'm gonna run back to the research center,

try to look up historical records on the different shafts.

Then we'll get another location picked

- following this shaft. - Yeah.

Okay, guys, I will talk to you soon.

We'll finish up here.

Later that afternoon...

- Thanks, Jack. - Yeah.

- Laird. Helen. Emma. - Looks good. - How are you?

- Hello. - Sandy.

- So, we'll set up here. - Alex Lagina,

Jack Begley,

and archaeometallurgist Emma Culligan

welcome numismatist Sandy Campbell

to the Oak Island Interpretive Centre.

Sandy has come to examine the cut copper coin

that was found one week ago by Rick Lagina

and Gary Drayton on Lot 5.

A coin which X-ray fluorescence scanning

has indicated may predate the 16th century.

Okay, so the thing that we'd like to show you is

- a find on Lot 5, which we've recently gained access to. - Okay. Yeah.

- So this is kind of a new area on the island for us. - Okay.

- Okay. - We only recently got access to the lot,

so we haven't been over it with a metal detector ourselves.

And that's what Rick and Gary were doing when they found this.

It's very interesting.

We're not totally sure what it is.

- Okay. - Uh, but we have some... ideas.

- Well, let's have a look. - I'll go grab the coin.

Great. Perfect.

Here you go.

Thank you, Emma.

Here, I'll hand it to you in the bag.

All right.

- I'll let you take it out. - I'll have a look.

Part of a coin.

Hopefully.

Let's have a look.

So you've done an XRF and a CT and...

Yeah, we have. Emma, are you able to pull that up for us,

- by any chance? - Sure can.

- Thank you. - It's just loading right now.

While that loads, here's a picture.

Let's flip it to the other.

Looks like there's some sort of...

characters or something inscribed on it.

Yeah. What about, uh,

XRF?

Yes. So, I do have an XRF... result.

And it shows high content in copper, lead and tin

but also, um, about .51% arsenic.

- Yeah. - Um, and it also has 1.05% silver

in it as well.

Which, yeah, I mean,

you can get silver

- naturally occurring with copper, obviously, and... - Mm-hmm.

You know, if it has arsenic,

this is pre-1500.

For sure.

You know, if we weigh this...

Let-Let's weigh it.

This is gonna tell us something. Okay?

This coin looks like there's probably...

- a third of it left? - Mm-hmm.

This is probably somewhere

in the gram range, but let's...

S-So, it weighs exactly a gram,

which, you know, sort of unusual that it would be

bang-on a gram, but...

- Wow. - You know, it-it's not unusual

to see coins cut up and used as money

in a partial payment.

Again, y-you know, you get a coin that's this big,

and, you know, the deal of the day

- required a third of that copper. - Mm-hmm.

- So you're just snipping off a third of the coin, right? - Right.

And that's really how barter worked then.

Right.

Just see here.

I think this is probably...

Uh, I'm guessing it's either Roman...

It could even be Byzantine, but...

I'm thinking it's-it's Roman.

- Roman? - No way.

In the Oak Island Interpretive Centre,

numismatist Sandy Campbell

has just shared an incredible assessment

of the half-coin found one week ago on Lot 5.

What on earth would that be doing here?

Based on what I'm seeing on the coin,

I mean, I-I see Roman-style characters.

The style is definitely from 300 BC to 500, 600 AD.

- No way. - Yeah.

A Roman coin

possibly dating back over 2,000 years?

But if so, who could have brought it to Oak Island?

All right, so I'm gonna have to call Rick. I want to see...

- Yeah. - I want to see Rick's reaction to this.

This is unbelievable.

- Hello. - Hey, Rick.

Hey, Alex. How are you?

Good. Hey, you, uh...

you and Gary might want to come down to the lab.

Uh, we got

some pretty interesting information here for you.

- We'll be down A.S.A.P. - Okay.

- See you soon. Bye. - All right, see you. Yeah, bye.

This is just an incredible moment because,

you know... we got...

we have a Roman coin on Oak Island.

And here we sit trying to draw conclusions,

a-and it's, like, wide open at this point, you know?

Who brought it here? How did it get here?

Why is it on Lot 5 in particular?

It's just a total mystery right now.

Hey, Laird?

- Hey. - Can you, uh, join us on this?

- Sure. - We'd love to get your take.

Th-This is,

like, a typical-looking Roman...

all the way into Byzantine period... design.

Laird, is there a precedent in Nova Scotia of, you know,

- coins like this? - Not in Nova Scotia.

There are precedents in the East Coast of the Uni-United States.

- Okay, so... - From-from archaeological sites.

Hey, guys!

- Hey, chaps. - Hey, guys.

- We heard excitement in your voices. - Brace yourselves.

- Oh, man. - And we came running.

- Brace yourselves. - Ooh.

So, this is, uh, what you guys found on Lot 5 the other day.

And we just showed it to Sandy.

My-my thoughts... and I think I'm,

you know, pretty confident...

that this is Roman.

Most likely Roman.

Roman, baby!

Oh!

Have I waited for this.

Put it in probably Roman.

- That's my gut. - Mm.

So...

What do you make of that?

That is incredible, mate.

Incredible!

Run it by me again.

Why is it possibly Roman?

Well, it-it... the design is definitely Roman.

This is definitely a person here,

and this is a tree here.

Oh, yeah.

This style is Roman.

Does the elemental analysis

confirm what you suspect about the coin?

- Yeah, when I... - when I see arsenic

and I see silver in there, y-you know,

it's a very unrefined copper,

which shows that...

again, really confirms with me

that it's probably, most likely Roman.

A Roman coin on Oak Island?

- Mm-hmm. - What's it doing here?

So, when we were in Portugal, we were investigating

the road that we found in the swamp, right?

And we saw an example of a Roman road over in Portugal.

Oh. Morning.

- Welcome to Portugal. - Thank you.

One year ago,

Rick, Alex and members of the team

visited a number of locations in Portugal

where the Knights Templar established strongholds

between the 12th and 16th centuries.

Okay, let's see what we can find.

There, they were shown

a number of carvings in Templar churches

matching symbols that have been found in the past on Oak Island.

This symbol is definitely on the 90 Foot Stone.

- Right there. - That's perfect.

Yep.

The stone path looks exactly like this.

But one of the most compelling features they saw

was a cobblestone road dating back nearly 2,000 years

to a time when the area was once part of the Roman Empire.

Incredibly, the road was an exact match

to the one unearthed in the swamp by the team in 2020,

which is believed to date back at least 500 years

and be of Portuguese origin.

So maybe the coin and the road in the swamp

- are connected. - Yeah.

Is it possible that this Roman coin

may have been brought to Oak Island

by members of the Knights Templar?

If so, could it also explain

the possible dam feature at the north end of the swamp,

the medieval lead cross found in 2017 at Smith's Cove,

or even perhaps the high traces of gold

that have been detected in the Money Pit area?

A Roman-era coin on Oak Island...

it's astounding.

It's undeniable that there is a certain

geographic connection.

But is it Templar-related? I don't know.

We have to put it through more rigorous scientific analysis.

This story is incredibly complex.

I know one thing for sure...

Lot 5 is now on the Oak Island treasure map for sure.

Yeah.

Sandy, y-you know,

we-we welcome your expertise.

- And if you can continue to look into this, uh, we would... - I will.

We would love whatever information comes of that.

And we need to get back out to Lot 5.

We do, mate. "Boots on the ground,"

- as you would say. - Yeah.

- Thank you very much. - Let's go find more.

- Yep. - All right, let's go.

With each new discovery

that Rick, Marty and their team make,

the confounding puzzle

that is the 228-year-old Oak Island mystery

is one piece closer to finally being completed.

But as they continue to dig all across the island,

could it lead to a discovery

that will merely change their lives?

Or will what they ultimately find rewrite

North American history?

Next time on The Curse of Oak Island...

- We've never seen that before. - No.

Oh, wow, look at this.

It's looking like some sort

of fairly large feature.

This could be important for the whole story.

This object is from medieval Europe.

Wow. This adds validity to Zena's map.

We're trying to track the gold back to its source.

The area in pink there would be exactly where

- the gold is. - Wow. That is astounding.

- Yeah. - Let's go!