Thirty-seven gold coins valued at more than US $1 million and stolen from the 1715 Fleet shipwrecks off Florida’s Treasure Coast have been recovered by the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission – in what the FWC describes as a major milestone in its long-running investigation into the theft and trafficking of the artefacts.
The 1715 Fleet represents around a dozen Spanish treasure-ships that sank during a hurricane off Florida’s coast more than 300 years ago. The artefacts recovered from the wrecks are protected by state and federal law – but even now 13 coins remain unaccounted for.
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In 2015 members of the Schmitt family, working as contracted salvage operators for the limited liability company 1715 Fleet – Queens Jewels, uncovered a treasure trove of 101 gold coins from the Spanish wrecks, according to the FWC.
Fifty-one of these coins were said to have been reported correctly to the authorities but the existence of the other 50 was not disclosed.
FWC investigators collaborated with the FBI after new evidence emerged this June of the illegal sale of multiple stolen gold coins between 2023 and 2024, a crime they linked to family-member Eric Schmitt.
Armed with multiple search warrants, they recovered coins from homes and safe deposit boxes along with five from a Florida-based auctioneer, who was said to have unknowingly bought them from Schmitt.
“Advanced digital forensics identified metadata and geolocation data linking Eric Schmitt to a photograph of the stolen coins taken at the Schmitt family condominium in Fort Pierce,” says the FWC.
“It was also discovered that Eric Schmitt took three of the stolen gold coins and placed them on the ocean floor in 2016 to be found by the new investors of 1715 Fleet – Queens Jewels.” Schmitt has been charged in state court with selling stolen property.
The FWC says it has worked closely with historical preservation experts to appraise and authenticate the artefacts, which are to be returned to their custodians as required by law. It says it is also committed to recovering the remaining 13 stolen coins “and bringing those involved in their illegal sale to justice”.
Also on Divernet: PHOTOS FROM SPACE THAT POINTED TO ‘TREASURE WRECK’, ‘TOO EASY’: KEY 16TH-CENTURY SPANISH WRECK FOUND IN FLORIDA, TREASURE-HUNTER’S BID TO SALVAGE SHALLOW WRECK OVERTURNED, DIVER’S $100K FIND RUNS IN THE FAMILY
