A hurricane sank a Spanish fleet in 1715. This summer, salvagers found $1M in coins
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5:29 PM on Friday, October 3
By KATE PAYNE
A team of excavators has uncovered a load of long-lost Spanish coins buried for centuries under the surf and sand along a stretch of Florida known as the “Treasure Coast.”
This week, shipwreck salvage company 1715 Fleet – Queens Jewels LLC announced that its divers had found more than 1,000 silver and gold coins thought to be minted centuries ago in the Spanish colonies of Bolivia, Mexico and Peru. They estimate the coins are worth $1 million.
Over the years, millions of dollars in coins have been found — and stolen — by salvagers in a stretch of Atlantic coast from Melbourne to Fort Pierce.
Ultimately, the recent finds from this summer's salvage season will be split between the salvage company, its subcontractors and the state of Florida, as required by state law.
Here's what to know about Florida's tradition of state-sanctioned treasure hunting.
The 1715 Fleet was a convoy of Spanish ships laden with silver, gold and jewels taken from the New World. The flotilla was sailing back to Spain when a hurricane struck it on July 31, 1715, spilling the treasures into the sea.
The Spanish recovered some of the gold and silver coins, but many of the doomed fleet's treasures were considered lost to the ages.
For generations, divers have combed the “Treasure Coast,” looking for the gold bars and pieces of eight lost beneath the waves. Over the years, the site has yielded a trove of, well, treasure and has helped sustain a local industry of professional treasure hunters.
Under Florida law, any “treasure trove” or archaeological artifacts that have been “abandoned” on state-owned lands or in state waters belong to the state. But the state can issue permits to qualified individuals or companies for the survey and recovery of offshore cultural resources.
The salvagers get to walk away with most of the artifacts, following negotiations with state officials.
State law requires that up to roughly 20% of the recovered archaeological materials be retained by the state for research collections or public display. The other 80% can be split among the salvagers.
The company 1715 Fleet – Queens Jewels LLC was awarded the exclusive salvage rights for the 1715 Fleet shipwrecks by a federal court, which oversees its finds and distributions each year.
Sal Guttuso, the company's operations director, says staff make a detailed inventory of the finds before starting the conservation process in the company's archaeological lab, in which small batches of the coins are placed in a reverse electrolysis tank. That's a process of running a current of electricity through the water solution to gently remove salt, metal oxides and marine growth that may have encrusted the coins over the centuries.
Then, staffers will use magnification and high resolution photography to document the nuances of each coin, including any markings showing the date, monarch and minter associated with it, along with the weight and location where it was found. Those metrics are used to assess the coins on a point-based grade system.
State officials then review the detailed inventory and request which artifacts they want to keep for the public, once a federal judge signs off.
It's against Florida law to disturb or dig publicly-owned sites without permission from the Florida Division of Historical Resources, and violations can warrant felony charges. Florida officials can issue an exploration or recovery permit to applicants that have met “stringent archaeological requirements.”
The state does encourage residents and visitors to explore Florida's many underwater archaeological preserves, and to help identify, record and report underwater sites — just not disturb them.
“A shipwreck’s true ‘treasure’ is derived through public participation and interpretation,” reads an explainer on the Division of Historical Resources' website.
Sometimes.
Guttuso says running the shipwreck salvaging company is a part-time job for him. And the subcontractors who dive the site treat it as a summer job while working as a mechanic or property manager during the offseason, he said.
Some of the divers use one season's finds to finance next season's hunt, Guttuso said. Others keep the coins for private collections.
But there are some years when the hunters see a major payout, he said. In 2015, the company's divers found more than 350 gold coins, the most precious of which sold for $250,000 a piece.
___ Kate Payne is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
