The team begins drilling borehole H-9.25, located in the southwest corner of the former Chappell Shaft and just five feet south of the H-8 shaft, where in 2017 the five-foot-diameter caisson hit a large object at 170 feet that may have been the legendary Chappell Vault, a seven-foot-high wooden box that Frederick Blair and William Chappell reportedly drilled into in 1897, extracting gold shavings and a piece of parchment bearing the letters "VI." The H-8 caisson may have pushed the vault deeper into the solution channel, and new water testing in this area has shown further evidence of precious metals at roughly 200 feet. Terry Matheson and Charles Barkhouse monitor the operation as it reaches 198 to 215 feet of loose, soupy material. Charles detects metal in the core with a pinpointer, but the hits prove maddeningly ambiguous, appearing and then vanishing as the muddy material is moved. Marty Lagina, joining by phone, instructs the team to bag the entire core for lab analysis, noting that carefully analyzed sediments could yield bits of silver or gold that eroded from treasure nearby.
In the southwest corner of the swamp, Alex Lagina and Gary Drayton continue exposing the stone feature that may be connected to a road-like structure to the north, where the team previously found part of a European hand cannon possibly 800 years old. Gary recovers a piece of shaped wood with beveled edges that he compares to ship planking, noting it is well out of place buried in the swamp and large enough for carbon-14 dating. In a separate dig at the same location, Katya Drayton, Derek Couch, and Billy Gerhardt find a piece of cut wood at a depth of three and a half to four feet, well below the sand layer and in the peat zone, at roughly the same depth as the ship's railing found nearby in 2020 that was carbon-dated to as early as the 7th century. They also recover two hand-cut wooden stakes, one near the stone formation. Dr. Ian Spooner visits the site and requests a sample of the peat layer in which the stakes were embedded, explaining that if he can date the peat and compare it to a date from the wood, he can determine when human activity occurred. He outlines three categories of human activity identified across the swamp: 600 to 1200, 1600s to 1700s, and a post-depositor era.
On Lot 5, Laird Niven and the archaeology team continue excavating the round feature, recovering creamware dating from around 1762 and pearlware from approximately 1775, along with a large piece of red earthenware with a floral design that Laird places between 1750 and 1830. Isabelle Whittier then uncovers a small dark artifact that Laird identifies as a simulated gemstone similar to the clear one found just outside the feature the previous year. In the lab, Emma Culligan confirms it is a paste jewelry diamante made black by the addition of manganese and calcium. The composition matches the previous find, including traces of tin around the fastener, and dates no earlier than 1734, when French jeweler Georg Friedrich Strass introduced the technique. Emma characterizes it as high-grade, made for the upper class and mounted rather than loose, ruling it out as a trade item. She notes that black paste jewels have been referenced in military uniforms, and the timeline aligns with the 1746 expedition of the Duc d'Anville, a French nobleman whose family had connections to the Knights Templar dating to the 12th century. Doug Crowell previously discovered an 18th-century ship's log in the provincial archives stating that one of d'Anville's ships carried a large cache of treasure to a wooded island near Oak Island and buried it in a deep pit.
Rick Lagina and Gary Drayton search through spoils removed from the round feature on Lot 5 and find a tiny copper alloy cuff button with a loop on the back, which Gary considers another data point for grouping artifacts by era. They then recover a copper coin that has been folded over three times. Gary identifies it immediately as a talisman, a tradition he has encountered while metal detecting in Europe, in which a coin is folded and buried to ward off bad luck or appeal for divine protection. He dates the ritual practice to 300 to 400 years ago, consistent with the 1600s and 1700s timeframe established by other Lot 5 artifacts. The practice of folding coins as spiritual symbols dates to Ancient Rome and was prevalent across Europe between the 12th and 18th centuries. Rick reflects that the find reinforces his belief that what was deposited on Oak Island was not simply temporal wealth but something of profound historical or religious value, and that the effort to safeguard it was multigenerational.
The discoveries across multiple sites continue to build a picture of layered human activity spanning centuries. On Lot 5, the round feature has now produced six Venetian trade beads, six Roman coins, two simulated French gemstones, ornate buttons, a 14th-century lead barter token, and now a folded talisman coin, all pointing toward connections with the Knights Templar, the Knights of Malta, and the Duc d'Anville expedition. In the swamp, wooden stakes and ship-related artifacts embedded in peat layers await dating that could confirm construction activity as far back as the 7th century. In the Money Pit, ambiguous metal signals at the base of the solution channel near the former Chappell Shaft suggest the team is tantalizingly close to a source of precious metals that remains just out of reach.
