I'm trying to remember the name of a book I read, here are some details:
- Main character is some sort of detective/investigator (I think)
- Sci-fi, takes place in distant future. Oldest known relic is an american coin (from 2006 I think)
- Hired to track down whether or not a cup is authentic from a lost ship
- They end up finding the ship, but not the planet that it was sent to colonize.
- They are bringing back a bunch of relics from the ship when they decided to stay over in the space station for a bite to eat. The shuttle carrying the relics is destroyed (they were supposed to be on it but weren't).
- They end up following the clues and finding the lost colonized planet which is orbiting a star which is on some sort of crazy orbit through the galaxy which is why no one was able to find it before.