The 1715 Spanish Treasure Fleet has yielded more than 1,000 coins valued at $1 million off the Florida coast this summer, according to Queens Jewels, the historic shipwreck salvage operator that owns exclusive rights to the 310-year-old remains.
All but five of the coins were silver reales or pieces of eight, recovered by Captain Levin Shavers and the crew of the dive-boat Just Right from a site on Florida’s “Treasure Coast”. This stretch of the Atlantic seaboard encompasses Indian River, St Lucie and Martin counties and the cities of Jupiter, Stuart, Port St Lucie, Fort Pierce and Vero Beach.
The other five coins were gold escudos, and other rare gold artefacts were also said to have been recovered during the 2025 salvage season.
The coins were being transported from the New World to Spain in the name of the Spanish crown when a storm struck the fleet on the last day of July, 1715. Historians estimate that as much as $400 million-worth of gold, silver and jewels was lost in what was one of the most significant maritime disasters in the Americas.
Pieces of history
“This discovery is not only about the treasure itself, but the stories it tells,” says Queens Jewels director of operations Sal Guttuso. “Each coin is a piece of history, a tangible link to the people who lived, worked and sailed during the Golden Age of the Spanish Empire. Finding 1,000 of them in a single recovery is both rare and extraordinary.”
The silver coins, minted in the Spanish colonies of Mexico, Peru, and Bolivia, still bear visible dates and mint marks and appear from the similarity of their condition to have been part of a single chest-ful or shipment.
Queens Jewels says it is required to work under strict state oversight and archaeological guidelines. It uses scuba divers working in small groups to search at depths typically of 3-10m on sandy or silty seabeds with the help of underwater metal detectors.
“Every find helps piece together the human story of the 1715 fleet,” says Guttuso. “We are committed to preserving and studying these artefacts so future generations can appreciate their historical significance.”
The coins will be conserved, with some going on public display in Florida museums.
Recovery of coins on this scale is not an annual event on the Treasure Coast. The last major haul reported by Queens Jewels was in 2015, when more than 350 gold coins and other pieces with an estimated value of around $4.5 million were recovered.
