Capitana crew finds over 350 gold coins on 1715 Fleet Anniversary ..

[ShipwreckHunter]

Florida divers find 300-year-old gold coins worth $4.5M...
It's been quite a summer for treasure hunting in Florida.
Less than a month after the Schmitt family of Sanford announced their $1 million sunken treasure find, Brent Brisben announced his $4.5 million discovery.
On July 30 and 31 off the coast of Vero Beach, Brisben, who is captain of the S/V Capitana, and his crew recovered 350 gold coins. Nine of the coins found are known as Royals and valued at $300,000 apiece; these were specially made for the king of Spain, Phillip V, in the early 1700's. http://www.floridatoday.com/…/florida-divers-find…/31978933/

Great find over 350 coins including 9 royals (valued at $300,000 each) ....


Picture shows how shallow of water that the Capitana crew was working in when they found the coins ...

 

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[digging440yrs]

Awesome

 

[Red_desert]

Good Karma for the Arkie's eyes!

 

[Bquamb]

Seams almost unlikely it was that close to shore. How would no other swimmer have ever found that in 300 years?
Amazes me. Amazes me when I was down in Florida I didn't find it ;(

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

Seams almost unlikely it was that close to shore. How would no other swimmer have ever found that in 300 years?
Amazes me. Amazes me when I was down in Florida I didn't find it ;(

No one found it because coins were under reef and top of reef was buried under about 4 feet of sand. I have seen video of the recovery...... Find wasn't more than 15 feet off shore...


I can't post video of recovery till I'm sure I have approval.

 

[Darren in NC]

Seems almost unlikely it was that close to shore.

For years, lease holders have tried to develop ways to get closer to shore. It is well known among salvors that there are greater rewards closer in. Catamarans and fancy rigs have been tried time and time again. When our group (AARG) were leaseholders, we talked quite a bit about this. Fortunately, these recent crews are figuring it out. I'm thrilled for their hard work, and persistence. It definitely is paying off.

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

I got approval to post video of recovery...

Video of the actual discovery and recovery..

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B46RmOEalCHbcjdKVldwYWVlTHc/view

 

[ARC]

I knew when I saw the pics of them on that spot they were gonna hit...
And the bigger stuff could be straight back out to lines...

There are a few threads on this going now.

 

[Au_Dreamers]

The equipment has been developed for about 30 years. It just takes a special operation/crew to utilize the equipment to ..as we say.."dig the beach". Especially the way the Capitana crew has been doing this season.

1.6 feet of water under the keel makes for a tense day especially when you're 30 feet off the beach!

Then there's the proverbial finding the right spot!

Imagine the boat that dug just 40 feet away..... might as well be 40 miles in this business

 

[goldkey]

Let's get a crew and 20 shovels down there on the beach.....! Who's in?
Would probably be like trying to dig Oak Island Treasure Pit. There's bound to be more of that under the beach though.....from the hurricanes.
Just one of those Royals would pay for the shovel.....

 

[Darren in NC]

The beauty of searching closer in is that most of the sand from renourishment has already washed further out.

 

[Rawhide]

Just goes to show, it can be done.

 

[2rjnauta]

Would you know which metal detector was being used during recovery?

 

[cuzcosquirrel]

They should just let them lift the sand off the beach for 30 feet back and remove everything they find. Then fill it back in with a sand dredge. It's the only way to keep the nighthawks off there from now on.

Nice group of royals. I think for a certain amount of money, anyone could get these coins fully planchet struck at the mint, but Spanish law might have required duties to be paid with fully round coins, or maybe they were to be used in a dowry. There's some other interesting coins shown there too, like the large santa fe looking coin next to the Lima 8 escudos in the middle. It might be from a mint in Spain, and just goes to show how these coins got around. It could also be early 1700's Mexico Mint.

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

Would you know which metal detector was being used during recovery?

From video it appeared to be a aquapulse..

 

[Red_desert]

Seams almost unlikely it was that close to shore. How would no other swimmer have ever found that in 300 years?
Amazes me. Amazes me when I was down in Florida I didn't find it ;(

Gold along the coast is no different than gold in the mountain streams....it will find it's way to bedrock and around rocks, reefs are the same.

 

[OhioAdventurer]

Amazing. Does anyone know what 1715 ship this was from? These discoveries get my blood pumping so fast, but simultaneously upset me because now I know that there is less for us to go find lol.

 

[TreasureCDave]

Amazing. Does anyone know what 1715 ship this was from? These discoveries get my blood pumping so fast, but simultaneously upset me because now I know that there is less for us to go find lol.

Most would say the Santo Cristo de San Roman. Here's some good reading -
Lost Ships of the 1715 Spanish Treasure Fleet (Lost Treasures Part 4) | joeccombs2nd

 

[Red_desert]

"These discoveries get my blood pumping so fast, but simultaneously upset me because now I know that there is less for us to go find lol."

There should be plenty of similar shallow water gold treasure deposits along the FL E treasure coast.....but like this find, up close to the beach and where the leases are found.

 

[bikerlawyer]

Here is a pic of Sebastian Inlet I took Saturday looking north, you can see how the jetty erodes the sand to the south.