The Curse of Oak Island: ANCIENT CHINESE COIN Discovered in Canadian Waters (Season 11)

Okay, guys, so here we are.
I’m quite excited
-to get down there.
-Right.

[narrator] In the waters
just north of Oak Island,
Alex Lagina and Jack Begley
join diver Tony Sampson
and underwater imaging expert
Ken Deboer
to search for clues
that might be related
to a possible buried dam
near the northern region
of the swamp.

[Tony] So,
we’re seven to eight feet
-in the shallows here.
-[Alex] Okay.

And we dropped down
-to about 25 out here.
-[Alex] Right.

So that’s shallow enough
that if we’re looking
well in the past,
the water level
would have been lower.
So it’s plausible that,
you know, something here
may have been on dry land
at one point.

-Yeah.
-Because Fred Nolan thought
he had seen evidence
of a structure
on his beach here.
The one that correlates
-with Zena Halpern’s map.
-Yeah, exactly.

And you guys were looking
for the dam.
Exactly. So, it is possible
that any evidence
of that structure
might be out here in the water.

[Tony] Yeah. This is awesome.
Okay, I can’t wait
to get on the bottom
and get my eyes on it.
Your eyes will be on it
-with the ROV up here.
-[Alex] Great.

So, we need to get the ROV
in the water,
and I’m gonna get suited up
and go get wet.
-Let’s get started.
-Beautiful.

Alright, here we go.

[narrator]
In order to further aid Tony
while he investigates
the possible
man-made feature underwater…

[Jack] Here she goes. Perfect.

[narrator] …Ken will utilize a tethered,
remote-operated vehicle or ROV.
Equipped with thrusters
and a high-definition camera,
the ROV will act
as a second set of eyes
for the team
to help direct Tony
toward any additional targets
of interest.

[Alex] So, Ken,
we’re gonna run a grid?
-Gonna run a grid.
-Okay.

We’ll just go back and forth.
We’ll follow the diver as well.
-Mm-hmm.
-And we’ll be in communication
-with, uh, Tony the entire time.
-Perfect.

Good luck, Tony.

[inhales]
Alright. Tony’s in the water.

Tony’s in the water.

[Jack] There you go.
-[Alex] Alright.
-[Ken] Ready to rock and roll.

[Tony speaking over radio]
Surface to diver,
let us know if you see
any signs of a structure
or anything else.
Over.

[Tony speaking over radio]
[Ken] He’s got his hand
into something now.
-[Alex] Yeah.
-He’s fanning.

[Alex] Mm-hmm. Yeah.
[Ken] Fanning is what we can do.
Digging is what we cannot do.

[narrator] Although Tony
is allowed to scan the seafloor
with a handheld metal detector,
provincial regulations
prohibit him
from removing
or disturbing artifacts.

Can you tell if there’s
any more buried there? Over.

[narrator] However,
if potential clues
or valuables are identified,
the team can apply
for a special permit
to retrieve
and further investigate them.

[Jack] Tony’s getting a visual
on possibly hand-carved wood,
which is actually
a really exciting find
because we have evidence
from Zena’s map
that there’s a dam somewhere
along the edge of the water.
And that would indicate
that people were around
that north edge of the swamp
doing something.

[Tony speaking over radio]
Copy. How big?

[Tony inhales]

[Alex] Copy.
So that sounds like a–
I don’t know,
-like a little piece of plank.
-Mm-hmm.

Um…
I don’t know what to make of it.
[Ken] Yeah.

Copy. Keep us posted. Over.

-[Alex] We’re going shallower.
-[Jack] Yeah.

Whoa, Tony’s heading
towards a…
-Boulder there, you can see it.
-Yeah.

He’s going right,
straight forward,
whatever that is. What’s that?
He’s getting
right down into it.

[Alex] Mm-hmm.
[Tony speaking over radio]
We found a fair amount
of pottery recently
just from Lot Five.
-Maybe it’s comparable.
-Right.

[narrator] Is it possible that
the artifacts Tony has found
are related
to some of the discoveries
made in the last year
within the two-stone features
on Lot Five?
Artifacts that may date back
to as early
as the 17th century.

[Alex] After we get
this pottery, I’m thinking,
there’s two possibilities here.
One is that the rocks
have trapped this stuff here,
and the other is that
it’s sort of a deposit.
There’s got to be a source
for these things.

Hey, Tony, we’d love to see
if there’s any other artifacts
surrounding this boulder.
Over.

-[Jack] Alright.
-[Alex] Wow.

That’s incredible, Tony.
That’s awesome.

[Tony speaking over radio]
[Ken speaking over radio]
[narrator] A possible coin?
Until the team can present
their evidence
to the provincial government
and hopefully obtain
a special permit
to remove and examine it.

Unfortunately, this potentially
valuable discovery
will have to remain
on the ocean floor.

[Tony speaking over radio]
Copy that, Tony. We’ll see you
on the boat soon. Over.

Alright. I’d say
that was a successful dive.
Very.

[Tony] What makes
these artifacts interesting
is they’re similar
to the artifacts
that they’re finding on land.
So either they came in
on a ship,
or maybe it’s part
of a shipwreck
that was blown up on shore.

Wow.
That was cool.

Or maybe it was from people
that were on the island itself.

Alright, Tony.
That was pretty exciting.
-Yeah, that was a great dive.
-That was a fantastic dive.

What about
that metal detector head?
-Yeah.
-What was it?

So, that was a disc.
Like a coin with a hole in it.
-No kidding. Yeah.
-Whoa.

Initially, I thought it was, um,
one of those
Chinese-style coins.
-Really?
-Yeah.
-Or something like that.
-Something like that.

Just right up on that hill
is where Gary and I found
an actual Chinese coin.
And that dated back
to, possibly, BC.

-Ooh!
-Oh, no way!
That’s an old coin.
[Gary] And it’s got
that square hole in it, mate.

[narrator] In 2020,
while searching
between the swamp
and the money pit on Lot 15,
Jack and Gary unearthed a coin
that, according to numismatist
Sandy Campbell,
is of Chinese origin
and more than 1,000 years old.

Is it possible
that Tony Sampson
has just found
the same type of coin
in the waters just north
of the Oak Island swamp?
If so, could it and other items
he has discovered today
actually be related
to an ancient dam feature
that is believed
to have been constructed
in order to help
create the swamp
more than 700 years ago?

Well, I was excited before
about the pottery,
but, I mean, pipe stems
and maybe even a-a coin
or something.
-[Tony] Yeah.
-Uh, now I’m really excited.

One thing I know it is for sure
is a concentration
of artifacts underwater.
It might be enough to get
some kind of a permit
to do further
investigation here.

-Alright.
-That’s what I’m thinking.

[Marty] They’re great finds.
I think the next step would have
to be to get a proper permit
for actually retrieving
some of these items.
We may be able to understand
why they’re there.
And if they are connected
to Fred’s wall
in the north end of the bog.

This area needs
a lot more investigation.
Yeah, Nice job, Tony.
-Well done.
-Thanks, mate.
Great job.