Rick and Marty Lagina, Craig Tester, and their team gather at the Interpretive Centre to launch a new season with a clear mission: systematic drilling to the bottom of the solution channel, where they believe the original Money Pit treasure fell after repeated excavations caused a massive collapse. Scott Barlow and Steve Guptill present a drill program targeting the deepest sections of the solution channel around the TOT-1 shaft, and Laird Niven outlines plans to expand excavations on Lot 5, where two deliberately buried stone foundations have produced artifacts spanning the 14th through 18th centuries, including a lead barter token scientifically matched to the 14th-century lead cross and Venetian trade beads linked to the Knights of Malta. The team begins drilling borehole J-6 just five feet south of the TOT-1 shaft. Terry Matheson monitors as the drill cuts through a bedrock ledge at 178 feet and drops into the solution channel. At roughly 188 feet, the drill hits something hard that may have been pushed deeper into the slushy material. The borehole reaches bedrock at 213 feet with loose material between 201 and 208 feet, but no clear artifacts are recovered. Samples are collected for lab analysis.
In the War Room, Doug Crowell introduces Steve Salomon, a descendant of the Archibald family with historic ties to the Oak Island treasure hunt. Salomon presents a silver Portuguese coin he believes was recovered from roughly 100 feet deep in the original Money Pit in 1849 by Truro Company foreman James Pitblado during a drilling operation that reportedly struck two stacked chests of loose metal. According to family history, Pitblado took the coin to Charles Dickson Archibald, manager of the Acadian Iron Works, and the two attempted to purchase the eastern end of Oak Island from landowner John Smith, one of the three young men who discovered the Money Pit in 1795. The proposal was refused, but paperwork from an 1849 treasure trove application in Lunenburg survives as documentation. The coin was passed down through the Archibald family to Salomon through his mother-in-law. The team notes its remarkable condition and slight bend consistent with being extracted by a pod auger. In the lab, Emma Culligan later confirms the coin is .375 silver, a Tornes de Escudo minted during the reign of Ferdinand I of Portugal from 1367 to 1383, with a composition matching known examples. Judi Rudebusch identifies a Templar cross on the reverse, and Corjan Mol connects the six-pointed star design to carvings at the 12th-century Templar church in Fontarcada, Portugal, that the team visited in 2021.
At Smith's Cove, Marty, Craig Tester, Gary Drayton, and Billy Gerhardt search through spoils excavated from more than 180 feet deep in the Money Pit area the previous year. Marty recovers a wrought-iron cribbing spike possibly used to connect large beams in shaft construction, which the team interprets as potential evidence of the original Money Pit since no known searchers built shafts that deep. Gary finds a second iron tool resembling a chisel. In the lab, Emma's XRF analysis reveals the chisel lacks any modern alloying element such as manganese, placing it comfortably in the 1700s with the possibility of being older, and confirming it predates the discovery of the Money Pit. In borehole H.5-8.5, Alex Lagina, Terry Matheson, and Charles Barkhouse extract two pieces of buckled metal from 174 to 178 feet that the team identifies as old drill rod or casing. The diameter and construction suggest it could be from the Truro Company's 1849 pod auger operation, the same drilling in which Pitblado made his discovery. Deeper in the same borehole, Charles detects shiny metal fragments at roughly 190 feet, all of which are bagged for Emma's analysis.
On Lot 5, Rick Lagina, Peter Fornetti, and Katya Drayton detect and recover an iron fastener east of the round feature, a possible sign of additional structures. Gary Drayton and Peter, working with archaeologist Fiona Steele under provincial special-place regulations, search spoils from the round feature and find a lead shot and a substantial iron artifact at ten inches depth. Fiona discovers glass, coarse earthenware, and iron concentrated together at the site and halts digging, suspecting they may have found another section of the round feature only feet from where the starburst button and spiral button linked to the Knights of Malta were previously recovered. Fiona also unearths a piece of Staffordshire slipware that Laird Niven dates to 1675 to 1770, representing some of the earliest pottery found in the feature. Tansy Rudnicki recovers a tiny seed bead near sterile soil depth that Laird identifies as likely Venetian, joining four previously found Venetian trade beads and a forest glass bead dated as early as the 10th century.
The two-hour premiere establishes the season's focus on the solution channel as the primary treasure target, with the Pitblado coin providing the strongest evidence to date that 14th-century Portuguese coins associated with the Knights Templar were buried in the original Money Pit. Emma's confirmation of the coin's authenticity, combined with its family provenance and the 1849 Archibald documentation, gives the team renewed confidence that a vast cache of similar coins lies deep in the solution channel. Rick reflects that the island's dates preceding 1367, supported by hard science, point to a multigenerational effort spanning centuries. The discoveries on Lot 5, including pre-depositor-era pottery, Venetian beads, and artifacts linked to both the Knights Templar and the Knights of Malta, continue to build a picture of multiple groups who occupied the island long before the Money Pit was discovered in 1795. The team resolves to push deeper than any previous searcher and to expand excavations across the island in pursuit of answers.
