On The Curse of Oak Island this week, the team found a coin that might date as early as 300 BC. This would make it one of the oldest finds on the island for the hit History Channel reality TV series.
Here is a look at what they found and what the team believes it could mean.
Ancient coin found on The Curse of Oak Island
One of the most interesting finds on The Curse of Oak Island this week came in the form of a coin. This was something that Gary Drayton found thanks to his miracle metal detector. It was something he found at Lot 5, which is a new area for the Lagina brothers to explore on the island.
This week, Alex Lagina and Jack Begley brought in a coin expert and numismatist named Sandy Campbell to look at the coin. He arrived at the Interpretative Center and took a look at it before delivering some shocking and exciting news to the team. Based on the chemical composition, Campbell said that it came from ancient Rome. This means it is either Roman or Byzantium in nature.
Furthermore, it is possibly as old as 300 BC. Sandy said that the date range was wide, but went from about 300 BC all the way to around 600 AD. Even in that range of 900 years, it is one of the older trinkets the team has found. Also, based on that range, it is likely Roman – and not Byzantium.
What could the coin mean for The Curse of Oak Island?
Rick Lagina was very excited about the possibilities of this coin being on Oak Island. After Sandy made sure to confirm it is almost definitely Roman, Rick set out to figure out what it was doing on the island. Sandy had no clue but it leads to a lot more fun theorizing for the crew and fans of The Curse of Oak Island.
The very good Dot to Dot YouTuber breaks down the mysteries that present themselves on Curse of Oak Island. He also came up with some news about what the coin actually is. Additionally, he was searching around and found some information from the Quest of Oak Island Facebook page. A person on that page identified the coin as one from 337 to 355 AD, which really narrows things down.
This means the coin comes from the time of Constantius II. The video also shows the actual coin and it matches up really close with the one found on The Curse of Oak Island. There were tens of millions of these coins minted at the time. This reveals at least where the coin came from.
Of course, the mystery is still how the coin arrived on Oak Island. That is because there isn’t much historical data of anyone going to North America during this time period. However, that is what makes the show fun – coming up with theories on how the treasure ended up on the island.
What else do you think they will find this season on The Curse of Oak Island? Let us know your thoughts and predictions in the comments below.
