The Curse of Oak Island: 17th Century English Relic Discovered?! (S12)

-CRAIG: So, is this the spoils pile right here? -GARY: Yeah. This is the latest one that Billy's guys moved around.

<i> NARRATOR: . . .

Craig Tester and metal detection expert</i> <i> Gary Dryton arrive on Lot 4,</i> <i> located on the western side of the island. </i> GARY: All of this stuff came from -the round feature behind us. -Oh, okay.

<i> NARRATOR: They are continuing to search</i> <i> through more than ten tons of spoils</i> <i> that were removed one year ago</i> <i> from a mysterious rounded stone feature</i> <i> located several yards to the east on Lot 5. </i> <i> A feature where, in addition to a mortar-like soil</i> <i> that may have come from more than 100 feet deep</i> <i> in the Money Pit area,</i> <i>the team has unearthed a number of stunning artifacts,</i> <i> including a fragment of a 17th-century</i> <i> English silver coin,</i> <i> and a 14th-century lead barter token</i> <i> which, like the lead cross that was discovered</i> <i> at Smith's Cove in 2017,</i> <i> may be connected to the medieval order</i> <i> of the Knights Templar. </i> GARY: Let's see what we've got waiting for us.

-(metal detector beeping) -(muttering) (beeping louder) Oh, nice little -signal here. -CRAIG: That sounds good. That looks easy digging, right in the rock.

(Craig laughs) -Okay, we'll start. . .

-Well, actually, it's gotta be on top of the rocks, in the soil. CRAIG: It's so small there. Why don't you hit it with your, uh, pinpointer?

GARY: Yeah, I'll try to pinpoint it. (beeping) Oh, I moved it. Oh, I see it.

Oh, I see it. Oh, wow, look at that. GARY: It's a nice little button, mate.

-Oh, right. -Look at that. CRAIG: Nice.

Very round. Does that mean anything to you? Yeah, these rounded buttons were normally tunic buttons.

Okay. GARY: Loop's still on it, isn't it? CRAIG: Yeah.

-Time period? -(exhales) GARY: Could be late 1600s to mid-17s because it is a fancier button. This is unusual.

-We haven't found any of those. -CRAIG: Yeah. <i> NARRATOR: A possible tunic or garment button?

</i> <i> If Gary is correct that it may</i> <i> date back to the 17th century,</i> <i> could it be connected to the cut English coin</i> <i> that the team recently found in the spoils</i> <i>from the round feature on Lot 5? </i> <i> And perhaps also help identify</i> <i> who created the original Money Pit? </i> That's a nice little button.

CRAIG: It'll be interesting once they clean it up, -what they see. -GARY: Yeah. All right, mate, we'll put this in the bag.

Another great little find. <i> Whenever we find a button,</i> I get excited because I know there's a chance <i> of getting some military insignia,</i> <i> which will hopefully help the archaeologists</i> <i> track down what has been happening on Lot 5,</i> <i> and hopefully the Money Pit. </i> -(metal detector beeps) -Oh, nice little -signal here.

-Again? GARY: And it's just there, mate. CRAIG: Okay.

Sounds like a nonferrous hit. (beeping) It's out. Great sounding signal.

Let's see what we got. (beeping) What have we got here? What have we got here, Craig?

That feels like lead. I think I know what that is, mate. I think that's a coin weight.

-Oh, really? -That looks-- Yeah, that looks like an old coin weight. You see how it's been sloped down on four sides?

That's what they used to do. Slope 'em down and cut pieces off to. .

. -to weigh coins. -Okay.

Your average person wouldn't have one of these, -would they? -It would be someone, kind of higher up. It would've been the person, like, in charge of the payroll.

-Mm-hmm. -I would imagine that that is an older style. I mean, coin weights go way, way back, before Roman times.

But they went out of fashion, probably, in the 1700s. Oh, okay. GARY: So, this could be an old coin weight.

<i> NARRATOR: Prior to modern coin minting processes,</i> <i> the weight of a coin would often vary. </i> <i> Coin weights were used by merchants</i> <i> as far back as 305 BC</i> <i> to ensure the true value of the coins</i> <i> they received, as well as prevent counterfeiting. </i> <i> Is it possible Gary and Craig</i> <i> found a lead coin weight?

</i> <i> If so, might it have been used</i> <i> to divide up sums of treasure,</i> <i> and perhaps be related to the high concentration</i> <i> of precious metals that have been detected</i> <i> in the Money Pit area? </i> GARY: That is really, really cool. CRAIG: Well, we'll have to see what the archaeologists think of it.

GARY: Yeah. I'll put it in the bag. There.

All right, mate, good digging. -Okay. -All right.

CRAIG: To continue. GARY: Now, hopefully, we can find -a gold coin. -Sounds good.

<i> LAIRD: Hey. </i> -Hi, guys. -Hello.

-RICK: Good morning. -LAIRD: Good morning. <i> .

. . Gary Dryton joins Rick Lagina,</i> <i> archaeologist Laird Niven</i> <i> and archaeometallurgist Emma Culligan</i> <i> in the Oak Island Lab.

</i> <i>Rick and Gary are eager to hear</i> <i> Laird and Emma's analysis</i> <i> of the button and possible lead weight</i> <i> that were found in the Lot 5 spoils</i> <i> just one day ago. </i> <i> just one day ago. </i> What about the button?

-Any info on the button? -EMMA: Info on the button. I did do a CT scan, but that's obscuring the surface image.

<i> NARRATOR: Earlier today, Emma scanned both artifacts</i> <i> using the Skyscan 1273 CT scanner,</i> <i> a device which emits X-ray radiation to produce detailed</i> <i> three-dimensional images of objects. </i> <i> Additionally, she also scanned them</i> <i> with the X-ray fluorescence spectrometer, or XRF,</i> <i>to determine the elements that make up their composition. </i> It's a copper-iron alloy, and it does have a high content of lead in it.

No aluminum, so that's good. There's no severe indicators that it is modern. -Okay, good.

-Yeah. So, I would fit the composition to 1700s to early 1800s, -English. -Hmm.

So, this is the best image I could get. LAIRD: I think what it says is it points more towards a gentleman than a farmer, again. Yeah, yeah.

LAIRD: And that could tell us something about what the round feature was used for. <i>We have a lot of questions left</i> <i> about the round feature. </i> <i> I think what we're finding now supports several of the theories</i> <i> that ties the deposition of something on Oak Island</i> <i> by the British military.

</i> I feel that's where the evidence we have on Lot 5 is leading us. Okay, the next one. Yeah, I think that's probably the most interesting.

What do you think that is? LAIRD: It's lead. It weighs 26.

2 grams. Gary thought it was a coin weight. GARY: Whenever you find a shaped piece of metal like this, especially if it's bronze or lead, it's usually a coin weight.

Now, this is large, but I was thinking maybe it's a weight for a large coin. It would be a very large coin. When you say.

. . when you say very large coin, what?

Well, the largest coins back in the day, uh, would've been gold. (Rick laughs) So start looking at big gold coins -'cause that would be great. .

. -Oh, yeah. Yeah.

. . .

finding one of those on Lot 5. It'd be a big coin. Emma has a dissenting opinion about it.

RICK: Oh, okay. EMMA: So compositionally, I do think it's modern. The phosphorous content, it's extremely high and you don't see that in lead alloys until mid-20th century.

However, I don't, you know, lead isn't my. . .

-Wheelhouse. -Yeah, wheelhouse. So we have a conundrum because I think the problem with it being modern is we're not finding other modern artifacts on Lot 5.

GARY: It really does look old. -RICK: Yeah. -GARY: I mean that looks really nice and old.

LAIRD: Yeah. I mean, lead was used for coin weights, but early on, too. -Yeah.

-Like earlier, -and then replaced by, uh, brass. -Mm-hmm. <i> LAIRD: In general across the world,</i> there seems to be a transition from lead coin weights to brass coin weights somewhere after 1066.

<i> If we can prove that this trade weight is very old,</i> <i> If we can prove that this trade weight is very old,</i> <i> it puts the other old coins we're finding on Lot 5</i> <i>into a more clearer perspective. </i> <i> Emma's analysis is suggesting the lead weight is</i> <i> more recent than the archaeologists think,</i> <i> but this is</i> a point where we need to, uh, consolidate the archaeology and the science together and come to a new understanding <i> of what this artifact is. </i> So I do think that it is an excellent candidate for laser ablation.

Great. That's what I was gonna say. -EMMA: Yeah.

-It's fantastic. <i> NARRATOR: Laser ablation is a testing method</i> <i> that uses a high-powered laser</i> <i> to remove a microscopic sample from the surface of objects</i> <i> that are composed of lead. </i> <i> The sample is then analyzed</i> <i> to determine its specific isotope value,</i> <i> which can reveal not only where the object may have</i> <i> originated but also its approximate age.

</i> Well, I think we can follow this up in two ways. The laser ablation and finding an expert or experts -to weigh in on this. -Mm-hmm.

It's a very curious find. It feels right in your hand for some reason. -It's up to you, Gary.

-Yeah. (chuckles) Well, we got to find some more stuff. -We got to find some more stuff.

-Yeah. <i> EMMA: I'm rooting for you guys.