This episode of the television program "Hawaii Five-O" shows some Spanish gold cob doubloons found by undersea treasure hunters and then some World War II Hawaii overprint US currency notes. "Hawaii Five-O" was a one-hour television program which ran on the CBS television network from 2010 to 2020. It is based on the original program which ran from 1968 to 1980. The program starred Alex O'Loughlin as Steve McGarrett and Scott Caan as Danny Williams, two Honolulu-based Hawaii state police detectives specializing in serious crimes. The program was filmed on location in Honolulu and Hawaii. This episode is titled "Mea Makamae" and was first broadcast on October 10, 2011. "Mea Makamae" is Hawaiian for "Treasure." The episode story is about the discovery of the body of a diver which leads to underwater treasure hunters, a cache of Spanish gold coins, and a large amount of US currency. The gold coins are portrayed by replica prop coins.

The episode opens with a view of Honolulu with the Diamond Head peak in the background.

On Waikiki Beach a boy swimming finds a human hand. The police are called along with Steve and Danny, the hand is taken to the police laboratory where Dr. Max Bergman uses fingerprints from the hand to identify the person as a diver named Blake Spencer. Dr. Max also finds that Blake was murdered. Steve and Danny head for Blake's apartment to search it.

Steve and Danny wonder why a treasure diver lives in such a sparsely furnished apartment. They find a notebook with codes for diving locations and in another room they find a glowing device.

The men uncover a machine with coins in it.

The machine has a rack of gold coins in water, probably being used to clean the coins. Steve and Danny take the coins to Gabrielle Asano, a museum curator and coin expert who tells the men that the coins are from a Spanish galleon the "Princesa del Mar" which sank in 1682 near Hawaii after an attack by English pirates. She also says that the coins are worth $2,000 to collectors and that the ship had a lot of them. Police officer Lori visits Blake's mother Mrs. Sylvia Spencer.

Lori asks her about her son but finds that she has dementia and does not inform her that her son is dead. The Coast Guard finds the rest of Blake's body along with an old wallet. Steve and Danny visit Gabrielle again about the coins.

The coins are shown again in a plastic bag.

Lori visits a bar and interviews a diver who knew Blake.

The diver, Remo Julian, wears a ring made from a treasure dives to a Greek ship named the "Pegasus."

The ring has an ancient coin along with the inscribed word "Pegasus." Gabrielle tells the men that the coins are imitations and fakes. Steve and Danny view a promotional film made by Jesse Billings, the head of a treasure diving company, to recruit investors. Jesse had been hunting the Princesa for some time and Blake and Remo worked for him.

Also part of the film are photographs from other successful treasure dives.

Jesse's film shows two pictures of coins which are important in recruiting investors.

Steve and Danny show Jesse a photograph of the fake gold coins.

Jesse admits to sometimes using fake coins to "salt" his shipwrecks to increase interest. Dr. Max has been researching the wallet and finds that is from the 1940's.

Dr. Max extracts a bill from the wallet.

The bill is a US five dollar bill with a "Hawaii" overprint on it.

Dr. Max explains that the US government overprinted currency notes with the word "Hawaii" after the December 1941 Japanese Pearl Harbor attack when a Japanese invasion of Hawaii was expected. The Japanese would then be unable to spend any of the notes that they captured. Dr. Max states that when the invasion threat was over the government destroyed most of the notes. Using Blake's notebook, Government divers locate one of the places Blake had dived and find a truck.

The truck is actually an ambulance and has a skeleton in it. Steve and Danny find out from the military that the ambulance was carrying a coffin with the body of a US Navy Captain who died in 1941. The ambulance rolled off of a ship during a storm. The divers find the coffin underwater but filled with US overprint currency. The detectives learn that a soldier involved in the destruction of the currency managed to keep $2,000,000 of it and used the coffin to hide the money.

Steve and Lori visit Mrs. Spencer again and inform her that the Navy Captain in the ambulance was Mrs. Spencer's father but that his body has not been found. They also show a photograph of the destruction of the currency.

Government divers have found a modern body near the ambulance which is found to be that of another of Billings' divers. A clue leads the detectives to diver Remo Julian's place.

They find a dryer put to good use.

The dryer has some old bills in it. Dr. Max finds the mark of the "Pegasus" ring on the diver's body.

The police arrest Remo and take him in for questioning by Steve.

Remo found the money in the coffin and didn't want to share it with the other divers. The detectives inform Mrs. Spencer that her son Blake had been looking for the body of his grandfather, the Navy Captain, and that he died a hero.

Alex O'Loughlin as Steve McGarrett
Scott Caan as Danny Williams
Daniel Dae Kim as Chin Ho Kelly
Grace Park as Kono Kalakaua
Masi Oka as Dr. Max Bergman
Patty Duke as Sylvia Spencer
Peter Fonda as Jesse Billings
Lauren German as Lori Weston
Autumn Reeser as Gabrielle Asano
Director: Duane Clark
Writers: David Wolkove