America: Starting with Daily Intelligence

Chapter 320 He's been slapped on the head.

Leaving the shallows of Silver Island, we arrived at the area in the photos the leader had previously found online, a reef that looked like a large ship.

It is actually a boat, but it is so ancient that it has become one with the land, covered with a layer of solid stone, algae, shells, barnacles, and the like.

The ship's hull is likely filled with seabed silt and sand, so it may not be an empty shell. However, the silver coins inside must have been washed away long ago. Those silver and gold coins are scattered across the island and even other shallow waters or deep waters hundreds of meters below, making the search extremely difficult.

I searched for more information about Silver Island and found that the island also has periods of high and low tide. It is currently the golden time of day, which is low tide, and tourists can explore these areas.

Zhang Ailun took out his phone and took a picture. You can see that there is still seawater in some of the puddles, and in the areas where green algae grow, you can also see seafood such as crabs, fish and shrimp next to the rocks.

Many people were taking selfies with cameras, and some even dragged members of the Colombian FARC guerrillas over to take pictures. The simple-minded FARC guys were happy to oblige, with an AK hanging around their necks, holding up two fingers, showing off their big white teeth, and grinning foolishly at the camera.

Judging from their skin color and racial characteristics, they are of mixed European and Indigenous descent. After all, Colombia and Mexico were also inhabited by Indigenous peoples in the early days, who were the pioneers of South America. Indigenous peoples can be found on almost every island and continent in North and South America.

After the Age of Exploration and the influence of European colonization, Europeans intermarried with the locals, and the remaining people are mostly of mixed race.

They have European features and generally do not have body odor, but most of them look neither fair nor yellow. The Latino race is actually the descendants of exiled criminals and mixed-race people during the Columbus era. Their bloodlines include black, yellow, white and all kinds of people, so they cannot be considered a separate race.

The simple-minded guy from the Copenhagen guerrillas isn't stupid at all; he's quite shrewd. He took a picture with a tourist one minute, and the next he was demanding a $20 performance fee from the tourist who took the picture.

The tourists weren't surprised; those who could afford to pay the entrance fee were generally wealthy and influential, people with considerable financial resources. Besides private car trips, tour groups also came.

After a brief discussion and debate, I gave the guy a discount and paid him $15.

The other person took the money, gave a thumbs up, and, speaking in a mix of broken English and Spanish, turned and left with satisfaction, continuing to smile at other passengers from his post, looking for the next person with money.

During this time, the leader also saw several passenger planes landing on the airport runway. The tour guide got off the plane, holding a small flag and a banner, and communicated with the staff. He also got his ticket and passed through the security check, and rented some metal detectors. Their travel agency should have already paid online in advance.

"No wonder their guerrillas aren't involved in drug trafficking anymore. It turns out they can make a lot of money just by charging admission fees. They don't have to spend a lot of money maintaining the island, and there's not much risk involved. After all, the main focus is on the pristine ecology. At most, they only need to send a few people to be stationed here to maintain order. They can make money while lying down."

Zhang Ailun sighed. He also felt that the tourist island was even more popular than he had imagined, and that he would probably have to pull a lot of strings to secure it.

"Boss, stop talking about making money or not. This piece of junk equipment is so hard to use, I don't even know when it was made."

Bailey walked over complainingly and said with disdain, "I searched over there for ages and didn't find any silver or gold. When I finally got a response, it was just a soda can zipper."

He pulled out a handful of metal scraps and scraps of aluminum cans from his pocket.

Everyone says foreigners are well-mannered, but what kind of manners do they have? They litter everywhere, and this is supposed to be a tourist attraction!

Old Jack said with little interest, "Their detection equipment is too outdated. They basically don't allow passengers to use their own professional equipment; you have to report it in advance before they're allowed to use it. We didn't bring any detection tools this time, so it's practically impossible to find anything valuable."

"The key issue is that these people lack basic manners."

Bailey, seething with anger, took off his shoes and showed the Grand Master his punctured heel. "Look at this! I walked around barefoot for a bit and almost got tetanus! Those staff just stood there doing nothing, they never even bother picking up trash. I feel like I didn't come here to search for treasure, but to help them clean up scrap metal and garbage!"

"Aren't there silver coins here?"

Zhang Ailun noticed the broken Spanish coin in his hand, took it and glanced at it. He found that it was also a two-pillar silver coin made by Spain during the South American colonial period. It circulated relatively early and was found almost all over the world.

Until around 1823, when Mexico was freed from Spanish colonial rule, it stopped minting large quantities of Spanish silver dollars. Instead, it minted its own Mexican silver eagles, and Spanish silver coins gradually declined and disappeared from the market in the early 19th century.

"It's not a complete silver coin, and it's worthless in itself. Even if it has a silver content of 90%, it doesn't have much value. The price of silver itself is already low."

Looking at the number of visitors on Silver Island—at least eight hundred, if not a thousand—Bailey did some mental calculations and said seriously, "They make more in a day than they do robbing a bank!"

"Let's go check out other places. I want to take a few more photos. Just act like a normal tourist," Zhang Ailun instructed, before leading Old Jack to another rainforest area.

Upon arriving, I saw a tent set up by the FARC guerrillas. Several simple-minded guys were sitting there drinking coffee, while a German man in a suit and tie with a small mustache was keeping accounts in a notebook. People were lining up to exchange silver coins for cash, and everyone's face was beaming with the joy of making money for free.

Zhang Ailun gestured for Bailey to go over and try to get information from them. Bailey went over and approached a middle-aged couple, asking them how their harvest was going.

"Not bad. The island just went through a low tide period, and many treasure troves in the rainforest were washed out. We even dug up a box full of silver coins." The middle-aged tourist enthusiastically showed off his treasure, which looked like a modern artifact.

When you open it, it's full of dried mud and sand, and a few silver coins covered in dust.

Pele gave them a meaningful look. This thing looks so fake, doesn't it?

"Are you American? Is this your first time here?" the middle-aged couple asked again.

"That's right. My friend and I learned about Silver Island online and have always wanted to come and see it for ourselves. So, during my vacation, we simply flew here for a trip," Bailey replied.

"That's great! We're Cuban. We're here as tourists too."

They chatted and laughed for a while, and when it was their turn in line, Bailey greeted them and then returned to the leader's side.

"Boss, I have a feeling that everyone here is a plant they hired."

Bailey couldn't help but mutter under his breath, "That box looks like a modern artifact. Maybe those guerrillas secretly dug a hole and buried it at night. How could the tide possibly wash a wooden box buried underground out? Did they think it was a flood? It's an 18th-century shipwreck, over two hundred years old. The wood should have rotted away long ago. How could it be so well preserved? It looks obviously fake!"

"Everything on this island except the people is real; it's all fake, just a way to fool people. We basically gave away our tickets for nothing." Bailey was speechless.

"I don't think so. There are definitely still silver and gold coins, but ordinary people can't find where they are buried unless they turn the whole island upside down. But that's a huge project. No one can do it without investing hundreds of millions of dollars. It would be a complete waste of money." Zhang Ailun smiled.

Even blowing up a building would cost millions, let alone blasting a mountain. What if the silver coins are blown to pieces?

He added, "Give me the equipment, and I'll go into the rainforest with Old Jack to take a look."

Bailey immediately handed over the shovel, metal detector, and helmet to the leader. Zhang Ailun called Old Jack, changed into black rubber boots, and the two walked into the rainforest.

Outside, the weather was sunny and breezy, but inside the rainforest, it was damp and sweltering, with dense foliage making it unbearably stuffy.

Zhang Ailun took out his phone and glanced at the treasure location. He then set off on foot to explore it, based on the current coordinates. After walking for about ten minutes, the instrument in Old Jack's hand suddenly beeped.

Looking back at a rotten wooden stake that was about the size of two people hugging, Old Jack took his shovel and tried digging it a couple of times. Mud and fresh groundwater mixed with seawater seeped out from the grass roots and rotten leaves.

Old Jack saw the gushing water forming a swirling eddy, something that usually happens when there's a blockage or a rock, and he immediately became interested. He rolled up his sleeves, ready to dig hard, but before he could even swing his shovel twice, he hit something hard with a clang.

Old Jack rummaged around for a bit, then suspiciously reached out and pulled out an aluminum foil-wrapped iron box. He threw it on the ground and saw that it contained a few scattered silver coins.

He was speechless. How could he have dug up silver coins so easily?

"Could they have made the forgery any more obvious?" Old Jack sighed. His initial enthusiasm had been abruptly extinguished.

"Don't say that. This island is actually quite small, but it has at least hundreds of thousands of silver coins and tens of thousands of gold coins. You could find silver coins even if you just stepped on it a couple of times."

Zhang Ailun joked, "They're so kind, giving you emotional support, how can you accuse them of faking it?"

After examining the aluminum box further, I realized it was a luncheon meat can from World War II!

My little baby has been covered up! Time travel has occurred! A World War II veteran has traveled back to the 18th century and buried silver coins and aluminum cans here!

It's practically one of the eight wonders of the world!

Although Old Jack said that, he still picked up the few mud-covered silver coins, wiped them clean, and stuffed them into his pocket. "Why not take them? They'll give me at least ten dollars if they buy them back!"

These silver coins are all veterans; they've probably passed through many hands.

With this island's business model, the silver coins that customers dig up are recycled and buried here, waiting for the next person to come. Don't even mention hundreds of thousands of silver coins, they would believe you if you said millions of silver coins were dug up! It's practically an endless mountain of silver.

The leader smiled, not particularly interested in the silver coins. They were definitely genuine, but judging from their condition, they were worthless.

The condition and preservation of a Spanish double-column silver coin directly affect its value. A coin in good condition may be worth between $1500 and $2000, or even tens of thousands of dollars.

If it was a horn coin sold by the Grand Master to Madison, a single one would be worth millions of dollars.

However, such historically significant silver coins are rare and hard to come by. Even if the hundreds of thousands of silver coins are in poor condition, there should still be some rare ones among them.

These are silver coins in average condition, with stamps or damage, which significantly reduces their value, typically ranging from a few dollars to tens of dollars. But they are still worth more than US dollars.

Even if half of the hundreds of thousands of silver coins are worn and worthless, as long as a small portion is well-preserved, their total value could easily exceed $5 million!

The reason it won't exceed one billion US dollars is mainly due to currency inflation. Once a large number of Spanish silver coin collectibles appear on the market, the originally valuable silver coins will become less valuable.

As for those tens of thousands of gold coins, they are extremely valuable.

18世纪中叶至19世纪中叶的金币，直径在2.0至4.0厘米之间，厚度为0.1至0.2厘米，总重3克到26克左右，一枚金币重量普遍大多都在8克或以上。

Even if sold at the price of gold alone, it would easily be worth hundreds of millions of dollars!

The actual value of this shipwreck treasure is conservatively estimated at at least $10 billion.

Although many people know that these Spanish silver and gold coins are valuable, it's all for naught if they can't find the treasure.

Many people know that the Federal Reserve's bank vaults have a large amount of gold reserves, Gaddafi left behind a large arsenal, and the Medellín Group has tens of billions of dollars in illicit funds—so much money that they have to dig holes all over the place to bury it.

But can those treasure hunters actually get these things? Not a single one! Because they simply can't find them.

Zhang Ailun then led Old Jack to continue exploring the rainforest of Silver Island, where they occasionally made some discoveries, including a few Spanish silver coins of mediocre condition.

However, their main purpose was to scout out the location and take photos. The two walked around and stopped until they arrived at an anchorage area, which was a huge grove of bushes and a swampy mudflat filled with water. Zhang Ailun tried to use the detection equipment to probe, but there was no response at all.

"It seems like not many people come here," Zhang Ailun said, somewhat surprised.

Perhaps it was because they were buried deep underground in the swamp that those Spanish silver coins were so difficult to obtain.

Drain the water, dig away the mud, and you'll surely find silver coins underneath.

"Because there are crocodiles!" Old Jack looked closely and spotted the creatures lurking motionless in the swamp.

"Don't move!" Before the Grand Master could say anything, Old Jack raised his hand to stop him.

Old Jack, eyeing the device intently, placed it on the ground, rolled up his sleeves, unbuckled his belt, pulled it out, and crept closer.

Zhang Ailun watched his actions with suspicion and immediately dissuaded him, "What are you doing? Trying to solo kill the top laner Renekton? I advise you not to be impulsive! It has Bloodrage!"