It's really amazing what some people manage to find.

For metal detector enthusiasts everywhere that dream is usually coin shaped, perhaps

a nice round silver dollar, or a rare penny from the earliest days of the United States.

But no one was prepared for what came out of the ground back in 2014.

It was a number of small silver coins discovered under the grass in an orchard in Rhode Island.

Arabian coins minted in 1693.

And more have been found elsewhere, including Massachusetts and Connecticut.

But their origin story might be the most surprising thing of all.

Back in 1695, an English pirate named Captain Henry Everie crossed paths with the wrong man.

After sailing around South Africa and up its eastern coast, he spotted a ship in the Arabian

Sea.

It was a passenger ship carrying Muslim pilgrims home to India after a visit to Mecca,

and Captain Everie and his crew brutalized and robbed them.

In doing so, he made an enemy out of the emperor of India, one of the most powerful rulers

in the world at the time.

And to avoid an international scandal, King William III of England also put a price on

Everie's head, so the pirates and his crew made a run for it, first to the Bahamas,

and then to the east coast of North America, where they ditched their ships and blended

in with the settlers there.

And if the coins are any indication, their escape worked.

The most fascinating aspect of this story, though, isn't the discovery of Arabian coins

in North America that predate the United States.

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