Just off Florida’s Treasure Coast (a region that includes Indian River, St. Lucie, and Martin counties and some parts of Palm Beach County), divers from the salvage shipwreck company Queens Jewels have found Spanish coins they appraised at around $1 million.
The company reports that just over 1,000 silver and gold coins were recovered, and they believe these coins originated from the Spanish colonies of Bolivia, Peru, and Mexico.
Historian group, 1715 Fleet Society explains that centuries ago, there was a group of Spanish ships carrying gold, silver, and jewels taken from what was known as the New World, sailing back to Spain when the ships were hit by a hurricane on July 31, 1715, causing the shipments to be lost at sea.
Sal Guttuso, the salvage company’s director of operations, reports that the dates and mint marks from the silver and gold coins are still precise.
“This discovery is not only about the treasure itself, but the stories it tells. Finding 1,000 of them in a single recovery is both rare and extraordinary,” said Guttuso.
Guttuso explains how the dive team found some of the wreckage. They used underwater metal detection devices, such as sand suction search, along the sea bottom. To separate remaining material from the gold, they employed a process known as “hand-fanning.”
Who gets to keep what they found?
According to Florida law, any treasured objects or items with historic artifacts that may have been abandoned and are found on state-owned lands or in state waters belong to the state. Florida law allows the state to retain 20% of the recovered archaeological items for research collections or public display.
However, legal experts note that at times, the items are divided up in the courts.
