In the Oak Island lab, Rick and Marty Lagina and members of the team gather to hear Emma Culligan's analysis of a coin that Marty and Katya Drayton discovered on Lot 5 the previous week, in the same area where five Roman coins were previously recovered. Emma's XRF reveals a copper-based alloy with iron, calcium, and a silver content she considers indicative of an older composition. Her CT scan produces a clear image: a standing figure holding an oak leaf on the reverse with the legend "officina N" for "novem," identifying the ninth workshop, and a bust on the obverse with a sharp nose, pointed chin, and crown that she attributes exclusively to Claudius II. The features and workshop designation place the coin at approximately 250 to 270 AD, making it the sixth Roman coin found on Oak Island. Emma also notes a high surrounding silicon layer suggesting long burial. The team observes that the coin's composition of lead, tin, copper, and zinc matches the trace metals Dr. Ian Spooner has detected in the Money Pit water, and that the so-called Portuguese Pitblado coin from 1367 to 1383 shares similar elements.
Rick meets with Steve Guptill, Scott Barlow, and Billy Gerhardt in the research center to plan a large-scale dig in the western region of the swamp, a brand-new area roughly 180 feet from the paved area dated to the 1200s. During their first excavation, Billy's bucket uncovers a hand-cut wooden stake strikingly similar to the stakes found lining the cobblestone path near the vault in the northern region of the swamp, which were carbon-dated to as early as the 17th century. The team discovers multiple stakes in a tight area, all axe-cut, suggesting another pathway that could lead to an undiscovered feature. On Lot 5, archaeologist Fiona Steele and members of the team continue excavating the round feature. Fiona recovers a pipe stem and measures the borehole at 4/64ths of an inch, placing its date of manufacture between 1753 and 1800, consistent with the mean date range of artifacts from the feature. The team also recovers large fragments of an ornate earthenware bowl that Fiona identifies as a utilitarian vessel likely used for food preparation, datable between 1600 and 1800.
In a separate lab meeting, Rick and the team examine a blue glass bead that Tansy Rudnicki uncovered in the Lot 5 round feature. Emma's XRF reveals that the copper content produces the blue color and that the bead's compositional average closely matches the Venetian beads collected over previous years. Laird Niven identifies it as a seed bead introduced in the second half of the 1600s. The team discusses whether the bead could be connected to the Knights of Malta, who would have carried Venetian trade beads to exchange with Indigenous peoples when Isaac de Razilly established the French colony of Acadia in 1632 with his headquarters at Fort Point on the LaHave River, just 15 miles south of Oak Island. Laird suggests checking with archaeologists at Fort Point to determine whether similar beads have been recovered there.
In the Money Pit area, the team drills borehole J.5-8.5 into the solution channel. At roughly 148 feet, the drill rods drop eight feet into loose material. Driller Adam continues pushing deeper and encounters nothing solid, with the rods eventually sinking to 188 feet through continuous void. Terry Matheson and Charles Barkhouse spread the limited recovered material across the table, but the pinpointer yields no metal hits. Adam pushes further to 228 feet, still finding only loose material with no bedrock, surpassing the previously understood maximum depth of the solution channel at roughly 218 to 220 feet. He finally reaches bedrock at 229 feet, with the total drilling extending to 233 feet. Out of the full run, only about 12 feet of loose material was recovered, confirming an enormous void. Peter Fornetti, Rick, and the team conclude that the solution channel is larger and deeper than previously understood, and that the collapse zone through which treasure could have fallen remains a viable target requiring further exploration.
In the research center, Rick and Doug Crowell meet with coin expert Sandy Campbell to examine the Roman coin. Campbell confirms it is unmistakably a Roman Empire coin, likely Claudius II and third century AD, and calls it the most remarkable piece found on the island to date. He notes that Roman coins were actively traded as currency well into the 1500s across Europe and the New World, and suggests the coins on Lot 5 could represent pocket change lost by workers who came to the island to construct the Money Pit. He connects this to the team's European research trips, where Roman coins from the same era were found at sites associated with the Knights Templar in Iceland. On Lot 4, Gary Drayton and Charles Barkhouse search through spoils deposited from the Lot 5 round feature and recover a lead strip with beveled edges and a hole that Gary compares to an arm of a lead cross. The team recalls that in 2022, Gary and Jack Begley recovered a lead barter token from the round feature that was scientifically matched to the 14th-century lead cross found at Smith's Cove in 2017, raising the possibility that this new lead artifact could provide further evidence of a Templar connection to Oak Island.
