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“Let’s go find something good, Gary.”
“Yep. That sounds nice.”
“Yeah. And it is just there to the side of the tree.”
“Yeah. You might have got it out.”
“Yeah, you have. See what we’ve got. It’s in my hand.”
“Ooh, look at that.”
“We are looking at a little pocket knife.”
“Seriously?”
“Yeah.”

On lot 25, near the foundation of the house that once belonged to Samuel Ball, metal detection expert Gary Drayton and Marty Lagginina have just found what could be an important discovery.

“I’d say that’s copper or something.”
“Yeah, the ends are copper. That’s why we detected it.”
“They don’t make them out of that anymore, do they?”
“Not so much.”
“Yeah, it looks like half of a pocket. And the blade must still be in there.”
“That looks like a fine gentleman’s pocket knife. So, you know, we’re hoping that it’s valuable.”
“And I think Samuel Ball was just a highly successful man. And he may have had some things we’re unaware of.”
“Well, we’ll see what it looks like when it’s cleaned up. Nice little farm.”

This is a great start.
“Really is.”
“It’s an excellent start.”
“Yeah. Let’s keep going. I’m excited.”
“Let’s go find some more stuff.”

“Yeah.”
“Oh, not so good.”
“Yeah, it doesn’t sound as good to me.”

[Music]

“That sounds good to me.”
“That sounds good.”
“Just here we go.”
“Oh, I’m on it.”
“We’re on it.”
“I feel something though.”
“Oh, yeah. That’s nice.”
“What is it?”
“A badge?”
“No, it’s not a badge, mate.”
“Yeah. To me, that looks like musket decoration.”
“Oh, like you phoned with Samuel B on it.”
“Yeah.”

“That might clean up and have some kind of design on it or some letters or numbers.”
“For sure it has letters on it.”
“It has.”
“Oh yeah. I was hoping it says patent.”
“Says patent.”
“Mhm.”
“Now you see it.”
“Oh yeah. Look at that.”
“That’s nice, isn’t it?”
“There ain’t any doubt about that.”

A patent plate, possibly from an old rifle or musket. During the 17th and 18th centuries, as firearm technology advanced in Europe and colonial North America, manufacturers placed engraved patent plates on their muskets as a way of protecting the ownership of any unique innovations such as the firing mechanism or the weapon’s design.

Similar to a maker’s mark, a patent plate could help reveal when and where an artifact was made, as well as possibly identify who it once belonged to.

“What do you think, Gary? How old is that?”
“With that design, the way it’s got that nice old style lettering, I’d say that’s period, mate, for this lot. 1790, 1830, Samuel Ball era.”
“Yeah, I think it’s period.”
“Yeah, I’d bet a lot that was on a firearm.”

“Yeah, it could have easily have been on the stock or the butt, maybe that’s a way to look for whatever this is.”
“That’s what I would do. I would start with guns. Um, probably British armaments.”
“Yeah. I mean, if you find out that that was some kind of nice shooting firearm, it might speak to wealth.”
“Yeah.”

The little patent thing was really exciting because I view it as yet another indication that Samuel Ball had a fair amount of wealth.

“Gary partner, let’s put it in a bag and we’ll go on to hopefully bigger and better things.”
“And we’ll tell Lid about this.”
“Yeah. Cheers, mate. We found some cool stuff.”

“Yeah. Here we are, mate. Over on lot 26. This used to be owned by Samuel B and it was farmland back in the day.”

Metal detection expert Gary Drayton along with treasure hunter Michael John are investigating an area near the foundation that once belonged to Samuel Ball. They are hoping to find more clues as to why the 19th century Oak Island landowner mysteriously came to be one of the wealthiest men in the province of Nova Scotia.

“What I’ve done since we have cleared out the surface artifacts, I brought the big mama jama.”
“There you go.”
“Yeah, it’s a little bit of a bigger coil.”
“Yes.”
“It’s a maximum depth for this one.”
“Like a cannonball size target about 6, 7 ft.”
“Oh yeah.”

Wow. This area is now cleared of trees and shrubs and bull rushes, gives me an opportunity to run the GPX 5000 with a 32 inch coil. We’re looking for deep targets.

“Okay, this is a good little clearing to start.”
“Yeah, I want to go in these wide open spaces. Hopefully, we find something.”
“Okay, we’re ready to rock and roll.”
“Alrighty.”

[Music]

Other than the interest in Samuel Ball, the human being, there is a little bit of a glimmer that he was a little bit more than meets the eye.

“I don’t think there’s any way anybody that smart, that aware of things, wouldn’t have known exactly what was going on Oak Island the whole time he was there.”
“The more I can find out about this person, uh, the better.”

“That was a small piece of iron.”
“Small piece.”
“Yeah. Come on. Where are you?”
“Oh, look at that. Very strong signal. Looks like it’s just here, mate.”
“Okay. Okay.”
“Yep. See, I should be able to hit it. That should be something good.”
“It’s deep. Uh, so it should be old.”
“Cool. What we got here?”
“That’s it. That’s probably it.”
“Yes.”
“Yeah. That is—Oh, a little baby ox shoe.”

“We found a shack daddy, the mother of all ox shoes near the swamp. And now we’ve found a little baby one. That is a small little ox shoe.”

Now, we’ve pulled up several different ox shoes in really good condition. And if there’s some kind of industrial operation, you’re going to need beasts of burden to transport whatever you were doing there. And when we show these to Carmen, hopefully Carmon will give us a country of origin.

“It is an oldie. This is an old artifact. I’ve just never seen them this small.”
“What a nice little artifact.”
“Yeah. And I’m looking forward to taking this to Carman Leg to give us a story behind this.”
“Hey, great find, Michael. Great find.”
“We got to tell the archaeologists about this area.”
“That’s right.”
“Yeah. I brought a tri in case you need some help.”
“Oh, excellent. You can always use help.”

Marty Lagginina’s son, Alex, arrives at the foundation of late 18th century Oak Island landowner Samuel Ball.

“We’ve got the cellar all cleaned out. Just some final, you know, getting rid of dirt and excavating in there. It looks good.”

It is here where archaeologists Lar Nevin and Liz Michaels continue their meticulous investigation for clues that might help explain how Mr. Ball, a simple cabbage farmer and former American slave, mysteriously became a very wealthy man by the early 19th century.

“Piece of pottery here.”
“Oh, you should find lots.”
“I see why you needed somebody to sift.”
“Yeah, it’s uh, I think I’ll be here all day.”
“It slows things down.”
“That’s true.”

I’m impressed with the patience these archaeologists have to unearth all of that with a trowel.

“I’m very interested in what’s gone on in the Ball Foundation. They’ve been digging over there for quite some time and I want to see it.”
“There you are. Thank you.”

“Hey, look at this. I got a coin.”
“I think it’s got—Oh, yeah.”
“Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Little green.”
“Yep.”
“Yeah. This looks old.”
“It’s got kind of irregular edges, like a flat portion.”
“It does look like the design’s a little off-center.”
“Well, I’ll entrust it to you.”
“Oh, it’s heavy enough.”
“When I first picked it out, I thought I could see a pattern and it seemed off-center to me.”

“Oh, I see what you mean.”

Part of the reason we’re doing all this work on the Ball Foundation is to investigate the possibility that Samuel Ball had a closer involvement with the money pit than was previously known.

“So, if we can date this coin to the same time period as these other finds we’re making, that’s it. That’s our connection.”
“I see what you mean about the edges.”
“Mhm.”
“Yeah. I think uh, we’ll bag it, get it to the research center, see what we can see.”
“Mhm. I’ll just find a few more for you.”
“Okay. Thank you.”

Later that afternoon:

“Hey guys.”
“Hey.”
“Hey.”
“Hey.”
“Take a look at this.”

Wow. Alex Lagginina and Lar Nan have gathered in the research center with Rick, David, and Gary Drayton to share their new discovery.

“So, this just came off of the Ball property.”
“Oh, we found it sifting through some of the stuff that the most recent test bit that Lar’s been doing right by the edge of the house.”
“Yeah. The northwest corner.”
“Uhhuh.”

“So, if you look, you see the anchor on the right.”
“Yeah. Right.”
“So, is the middle an anchor or is it a cross?”
“If you pull it down to show the edge, it’ll be a larger anchor.”
“Well, there you can see the anchor.”

“Okay. There’s three anchors.”
“There’s one on the right.”
“There’s a large one in the middle.”
“And then there’s one on the left down the side.”
“Oh, yeah.”
“And then they see the other one on the left there.”
“Yeah.”
“It looks like little waves.”
“And uh, I can see a rope design around the outside of it.”
“I know what that is.”
“It’s a Navy jacket button.”
“If it’s got anchors on it and a rope design around it, without doubt, that is a British navy jacket button.”

“What time period is this though?”
“1804 to 1825.”
“Solidly within the Ball period.”

We’ve been searching and searching for some military connection with Samuel Ball because we know he served the British during this Revolutionary War, which is how he gained his freedom and came to Nova Scotia.

“So, I think you just made that connection.”
“It’s one of the nicest buttons we found in terms of legibility.”
“Yeah, the front is spectacular.”
“I mean, those anchors are amazing.”
“Look forward to seeing how much information we can get off of this.”
“It’s a beautiful piece.”
“Oh, yeah.”
“Whether there’s more information or not, it’s stunning.”
“Yeah, I think that is gold or gilding right there.”
“I think so.”
“That would make sense.”
“Yeah, that would point to officer though, wouldn’t it?”
“Yeah.”
“Normally the officers add the gilded buttons.”
“An officer’s button.”

“If so, why did a high-ranking British naval officer visit the home of Samuel Ball on Oak Island?”
“And could it have something to do with the mysterious wealth Ball came to possess?”
“It’s a Royal Navy button.”
“Apparently, it would be somebody on a ship of some import, an important person.”
“What’s that doing in Samuel Ball’s Foundation?”
“I mean, we’re talking about an officer being in his house.”
“That’s kind of a big deal, I think.”

“Okay.”
“All right. Thank you.”
“Thanks for calling.”
“We will keep you posted.”
“Thank you.”
“All right, man.”
“All right. See you later, guys.”

“That is cool.”
“That is very cool.”
“This is somebody’s signature.”
“This is somebody’s name.”

While searching for artifacts on lot 24, the area once owned in the early 1800s by Oak Island resident Samuel Ball, metal detection expert Gary Drayton along with Oak Island historian Charles Barkhouse have just made a number of incredible and potentially significant discoveries.

“So, we got six coins, a fancy button, and you look at that rivet and the way that’s curved, that could have been on the end of a pistol.”
“Based on your experience, are you willing to say that this could be a camp?”
“Yeah, some kind of encampment.”
“That’s amazing.”
“An encampment?”
“Could Charles and Gary be looking at evidence that the stories about stolen Spanish gold are true?”
“If so, could the treasure still be hidden somewhere on the island?”

“Hey, Marty.”
“Yeah, over here.”
“What do you guys got?”
“Tell them what you think we found.”
“Lay it on me.”
“What you got?”
“Some good news.”
“Some good news.”
“Roundness.”
“Roundness.”
“Yeah.”
“Holy smokes.”
“Look at these.”
“Wow. All in one spot.”
“See that guy there?”
“See? King George II.”
“What does that date from?”
“Um, early 1700s.”
“No kidding.”
“These are all British coppers all in one spot.”
“Yeah, we’ve got six of them in this small little radius here.”
“And this, that has got script.”
“No, I think this is off of the end of a pistol.”
“Do you see the writing on there?”
“The script writing.”
“Yeah.”
“Yeah.”
“Yeah.”
“That that could be the person’s name who owned the pistol.”
“Oh, yeah.”
“Yeah.”
“Yeah.”
“Yeah. All of these right here.”
“Yeah.”
“I just think there’s so much stuff here.”
“I think this is an encampment or a camp.”
“Well, then we’re really could be on to something, right?”
“It’s very exciting.”
“We could be on some kind of encampment.”
“And Gary feels it’s George II’s head on there.”
“So, if it’s George II, it predates the original finding of the money pit.”
“So, even more exciting.”
“This qua hall.”
“Wow.”
“Gary. 1700s.”
“That changes a lot.”
“They’re not supposed to be here.”

No. Gary Drayton’s findings on lot 24 have validated much that has long been speculated about Samuel Ball and his connections to both the discovery of the money pit and the search for treasure on Oak Island.

If anything, it only serves to fuel interest in the possibility that something of enormous value was buried here centuries ago. Something that still may lie undiscovered and undisturbed, several hundred feet deep underground.

“This would have been the just everyday money.”
“Wow. Gary, that’s got a jingle to it.”
“Look at this guy.”
“I know. It’s a big purse.”
“Where’s the gold, man?”
“Well, I’m talking about never satisfied, eh?”
“Yeah, I know.”
“Well, you’re only as good as your last find.”
“Exactly.”
“Yeah. Well, we’ll give you credit.”
“Okay, let’s take a break.”
“It gets tiring digging all these King George coppers.”
“Yeah.”