Now, all of these spoils that we’re gonna go over today, came from Lot 5 around the big feature.
There’s a big pile…

• Now, let’s get stuck in there, mate.

• Okay.

We’ll go over it twice, Pete.

• PETER: Sounds good.

• Nonferrous first. And then we’ll pull some ferrous out.

(metal detector beeping)

• Ooh, a banging signal, mate.

• Okay. It’s gonna be good, mate. Just there. Let’s do it.

(metal detector beeping)

• It’s out.

• Ooh, it’s out. Let’s see what we’ve got.

(pinpointer beeping)

PETER: In your hand?

• I think we’ve found a cut coin.

• Okay.

GARY: And if this is a cut coin, mate… (stammers) Oh…

• I’m getting…

• (chuckling)

• I’m getting bumswizzled, mate.

• Yeah. If this is a cut coin, mate,

• it could well be a Spanish coin.

• Mm-hmm.

• More than likely, it’s silver, mate.

• Okay.

GARY: And that has got to be a really clean break to cut in like a quarter like that.
‘Cause that’s what they used to do.

• They used to cut the silver and gold coins up.

• Okay.

• It was to make change back in the day.

• Mm-hmm.

This can tell a story,

• and I know that my Uncle Rick…

• Yeah.

• …is going to be really excited to see this.

• He is, mate.

• (laughs)

• High five, mate.

• All right. This is absolutely brilliant.
  We’ll put it in a bag, mate, and let’s get it back to the lab.
  All right. Let’s do it.

RICK: Well, well, well…

• (sighs)

• (laughs)

• Look at that walk.

• (laughs)

• What a strut.

• What’s up?

• GARY: Well, Pete and I

• What’s up?

• GARY: Well, Pete and I have been searching those spoils off Lot 5,

and we have just recovered a real top-pocket find.
You are gonna love this.
Ooh… What do you think of that beauty?
It’s got some weight to it. What is it?

LAIRD: It’s a cut coin.
GARY: And Pete and I believe it’s more than likely gonna be silver.

• No way!

• Way!

• And it’s perfectly cut.

• GARY: Yeah.

• It’s quartered, right?

• Yeah. This is treasure. This is Oak Island treasure.
  I’m gonna pop it out, put it in the CT scan, and try to get an image.

LAIRD: Let’s do it.

This is a really, really quick scan.
So, it’s not gonna be a great image. There is a lot of scratch marks.
A longer scan should reveal a lot more detail.

RICK: So, you’re gonna run a longer scan?
Mm-hmm.
Oh, yeah. We’re gonna have to be a bit more patient.

• Mm-hmm.

• It’s early days.

• It’s early days.

• RICK: Where there’s one, there might be two, three, four, five.

GARY: Oh, yeah. Yeah, because this was cut up as change.
RICK: So, look, a great day. You guys did your high five out in the field.

• LAIRD: Yeah, yeah.

• We’ll do a high five in here, all right?
  Come on.

GARY: Uh… Uh.

Today we’re gonna learn about something that I think has caused great excitement.

Hopefully, Emma can tell us what she found out about this cut coin.

So, the CT scanner, although it could catch some of the abraded surface, like all the scratches on the surface, getting any detail was nearly impossible.
We couldn’t really see any details, but there was faint signs or faint engravings on one side.

LAIRD: You could see some sort of writing on it,

• but couldn’t make it out.

• Mm.

So I just popped that into the XRF map scanner.
So this is a compositional surface scan of one side of that coin.
It is, in fact, silver, but it does have a little bit of a lead content.
Like, I only left these elements ’cause they image really well on the XRF map.

Initially, when you guys brought it in, we did think that it could be Spanish.
But as you can see, you see the “GVLI” really clearly.

• GARY: Hmm.

EMMA: And this little… little design over here…
…and these two little triangular spots.

ALEX: Mm-hmm.
So, this right here is a William III shilling. Silver, same diameter.
And it matches the designs to a T.

EMMA: So it’s an English shilling from the 1690s.
Oh, yeah. You can see the ponytail.
EMMA: Yeah. And the little two triangles is its little ribbon.
Wow, that’s a shocker.

Emma, fantastic detective work.
It’s really, really cool. Very impressive.

• Yep.

• ALEX: Mm-hmm. Absolutely.

You know, it was older than mid-1700s.
Yeah. Yeah. It certainly supports a possible earlier date.

So this may also suggest that this was a stopping place for them over a period of time.
Yes.

The hell was they doing there?
Less likely to be a component of treasure, but rather

This makes me think of a book I read by, uh, Graham Harris and Les MacPhie about the British military trying to recover, um, William Phips’ treasure here on Oak Island.

DOUG: So, if-if that’s true, this could be evidence that the British military were here.
That fits in really well.

DOUG: They didn’t retrieve the treasure.
And the gold and silver particles in the current water test indicate that that treasure’s probably still there.
You got to find it, man.

I’m sure of that. Yeah.

Perhaps a mystery that has been developing over decades, if not centuries.

Okay, I think we’re all set to get out back and keep digging.

• Okay.

• Okay.