In 1695, pirates captured Mughal emperor Aurangzeb's royal ship and vanished after looting tens of millions of dollars' worth of gold and silver. The first coin from the treasure was found 300 years later.

One of history's biggest pirate heists may finally be yielding new clues more than 300 years later after a series of rare Arabian coins were discovered in the United States, offering fresh evidence about what happened to the treasure stolen from Mughal emperor Aurangzeb's royal ship.

In September 1695, the pirate ship Fancy, commanded by English pirate Captain Henry Every, attacked and captured the Ganj-i-Sawai, a royal vessel belonging to Mughal emperor Aurangzeb. The ship was returning to India from Mecca with Muslim pilgrims and was carrying an enormous cargo of gold, silver and other valuables worth tens of millions of dollars in today's terms.

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Historical records describe the attack as one of the most brutal pirate raids in history. Every's crew allegedly tortured and killed several men on board, assaulted women passengers and escaped with the treasure before fleeing towards the Caribbean.

The robbery triggered outrage across the Mughal Empire and severely strained relations between India and England. Under pressure from Aurangzeb and the powerful East India Company, King William III launched what is widely regarded as one of the world's first global manhunts, placing a large bounty on Every and his crew.

For centuries, however, the pirates' fate remained a mystery. Historians knew that Every reached Ireland in 1696, after which he seemingly disappeared without a trace.


That mystery began to unravel in 2014 when amateur historian and metal detector enthusiast Jim Bailey discovered an intact 17th-century Arabian silver coin while searching a meadow at Sweet Berry Farm in Middletown, Rhode Island. Initially believing it to be a Spanish or colonial coin, Bailey realised its significance after noticing Arabic inscriptions.

Researchers later confirmed the coin had been minted in Yemen in 1693—just two years before Every's attack on the Ganj-i-Sawai. It became the oldest known Arabian coin ever found in North America.

As per a 2021 report of the AP, since that discovery, 15 more Arabian coins from the same period have been unearthed across Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut, while another was found in North Carolina, where historical records indicate some of Every's crew first landed.


Bailey believes the discoveries suggest that Every's crew travelled to the American colonies after the raid and gradually spent the stolen treasure in everyday transactions while attempting to disappear into colonial society.

According to Bailey, the pirates may have avoided capture by posing as slave traders. Historical records indicate that a ship called Sea Flower, believed to have been used by Every's crew after abandoning the Fancy, arrived in Newport, Rhode Island, in 1696 carrying enslaved people, allowing the pirates to blend into legitimate commercial activity.

Bailey has published his findings in a research journal of the American Numismatic Society. Several archaeologists and historians say the evidence provides an important new lead in one of history's oldest unsolved criminal mysteries.

Mark Hanna, a historian at the University of California, San Diego and an expert on piracy, said the coin discoveries are significant because they provide tangible evidence that could help explain the final movements of Captain Henry Every and the fate of the treasure stolen from Aurangzeb's royal vessel.

(With AP inputs)