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Caught On Tape: The Moment Diver Discovers $1 Million In Gold From 300-Year-Old Spanish Shipwreck
Following the latest mass media assault on gold, capped with such trollbait pearls as "Gold is doomed" or the classic "Let’s Be Honest About Gold: It’s a Pet Rock" by the inimitable Jason Zweig (imitable perhaps only by the September 2011 version of Jason Zweig when, days after gold hit its all time high just shy of $2000, he famously said "Is Gold Cheap? Who Knows? But Gold-Mining Stocks Are"... since then gold-mining stocks are down 80%) we were more shocked that someone would actually bother to look for the worthless pet rocks (of which China allegedly just bought 600 tons) than actually finding them during a random dive in the sea.
Which is precisely what happened.
For several weeks the Schmitt family had a million-dollar secret on their hands. Last month, it recovered $1 million worth of sunken Spanish coins and jewels off the Florida coast.
The Schmitts are subcontractors to 1715 Fleet-Queens Jewels LLC which since 2010 has the salvaging rights to a fleet of Spanish ships, aka the "1715 Fleet", that wrecked off the Florida coast some 300 years ago. While $50 million has been pulled in from the fleet’s resting place so far, this is so far the biggest single haul.
"One of the most amazing recoveries in 1715 Fleet History. Congratulations to the entire Schmitt family and the crew of the Aarrr Booty," said 1715 Fleet on its Facebook page Monday.
Some more details from the Fleet Society's website: "Gold and silver in great quantity was homeward bound to Philip V when a hurricane destroyed his fleet along Florida’s coast. Some recovery in the aftermath still left much to be recovered beginning in the 1960’s and ongoing to this day."
“The treasure was actually found a month ago,” said Brent Brisben of 1715 Fleet-Queens Jewels LLC. Keeping the news under wraps was “particularly hard for the family that found it. They’ve been beside themselves.”
The timing of 1715 Fleet’s announcement coincides with the 300th anniversary of the Spanish treasure fleet’s shipwrecks off the coast of Florida.
Among the precious items recovered:
- 51 gold coins
- 40 feet of ornate gold chain
- A single coin called a Royal made for the king of Spain, Phillip V. Only a few are known to exist, and the coin — nicknamed “Tricentennial Royal” — is dated 1715. Brisben said the extremely rare silver-dollar-sized coin is worth “probably around half a million dollars itself.”
Queens Jewels owner Brent Brisben told the Daily News this discovery is of the biggest single hauls taken from the ship.
Or, as the WSJ would call it, a whole bunch of pet rocks.
Brisben gives 20% of everything found to the state of Florida and then splits the remaining treasure equally with the contractor that finds it. Brisben said he and his family will keep everything they have and save it for a special collection for the public.
It's believed there is still $400 million worth of treasure located below, he said.
As the WSJ's sister publication, MarketWatch adds, "the discovery comes almost 300 years to the day that the fleet wrecked. As for the history, the ships were sent to America to fetch gold and silver and under pressure to get back quickly, as the Spanish crown needed to replenish its coffers to finance wars. Sailing from Havana, Cuba on July 24, 1715, the ships crashed during a hurricane a week later near present-day Vero Beach, Fla. The Spaniards returned a few times, salvaging a great chunk of that treasure."
Three hundreds years later wars are financed by long strings of 1s and 0s, backed by the full faith of a government whose total unfunded obligations amount to over 5x the total amount of goods and services produced by said government.
Back to the discovery, whose key components are shown below.

Fifty-one gold coins and 40 feet of gold chains were found from a Spanish ship of the 1715 Fleet

The total value of the haul is more than $1 million.

About $50 million worth of treasure has been discovered since the 1960s.
* * *
But the biggest drama was the actual moment when Schmitt discovered the gold, captured conveniently in the video below.
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Curses!!! Found my gold!
:-(
Better not tell Bernank!
Too bad he didn't find some euros, dollars, or bitcoins down there. He would have been rich. Oh wait!
Where's a jewish seamstress when you need one ?
What does a woman being Jewish has to do with finding a collection of 300-year old gold coins on the bottom of the Atlantic ocean?
Tomorrow's WSJ:
Experts state the ship would have never sunk if Spaniards hadn't overloaded it with the barbarous relic.
They also speculate if the ship had instead been filled with cotton bank notes sailors could have stuffed their pants with money and floated to shore.
A small company can find a wooden ship, which navigated by starlight 300 years ago, but all the governments in the world can't find a metal airplane with a homing beacon using satellite and radar tracking data.
Weird...
Big freakin' deal... it's just a useless relic. Let it lie on the ocean floor. If it had been Federal Reserve Notes... well, that's another thing... haul it up and horde it!
the spanish raped the americas like no other.
Sounds like he is saying "screw em!!!"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THP1wlGT2fA
"the spanish raped the americas like no other."
Now the Spanish will sue for their gold back, win and not have to pay any of the recovery costs. It has happened in the past, why couldn't it happen again?
He should have melted the gold down and made bars and not told a soul.
This is why I don't understand organizations like this going public with their finds. In each instance, governments sit back and wait for these people to do all the exploratory work, research, and salvage.....only to then swoop in and confiscate the haul, claiming it belongs to them. The fact this business "bought the salvage rights" doesn't mean diddly poo to a gubbermint that has a shizzleton of armed troopers. After several millenia of history, why does ANYONE on planet Earth trust ANYTHING a gubbermint puts on paper?
I remember seeing more than one documentary about these type of treasure salvage operations. In each case, the respective gubbermint who granted the 'rights' to recover the stuff, subsequently confiscated it once all the work was done. IIRC, this has happened with Ecuador, Spain, Greece, etc.....even the good ol USSA.
my kind of 'boating accident'..
the spanish raped the americas like no other....except for the Tribe of course.
There...fixed it for you.
"haul it up and horde it!"
Haul it up and rehypothicate it!
Whored it, rehypothecated it, same thing
kinda weird.
the yellow thing just sat there.
in the muck.
dirty, dirty muck.
then he put it In His Glove??!!
ugh.
funny that it didn't float up to the surface.
Just pack it up and send it straight to Fort Knox...that is where all of these old relic are kept, isn't it??
What a wonderful metal gold is. 300 years in salt water and it's still shiny.
Unfortunately, after the state of Florida takes it's share...
He'll have very little of the original left to call his own.
This is why ALL my boating accidents are on dry lakes.
...with ZERO video evidence.
Nope. Didn't find a damned thing in that worthless shipwreck. Fucking idiotic as that couple that dug up the gold on their property. Keep your goddamed mouths shut, goddamit.
Yeah, morons. Now the government goons come to steal a share while they risked and did what exactly? Oh yeah, not a fucking thing but get in the way. Lose lips get your shiny pinched!
Report some, melt the rest.
I found a roll of taped-together, shit-stained, fecally-impacted hundreds at the bottom of our wastewater settling pond. Is the shit worth saving?
This surprises me as well. Back when I was in the Navy, late 80's, undersea objects on the Atlantic ocean floor were very well mapped by sonar. Before I left, someone had tossed out last year's book of contacts, so I made off with it. Of course over the years currents move things, but I was surprised at the sheer number of both identified and unidentified contacts on the ocean floor strewn about. About the size of a small phone book.
I have no idea if the Pacific is as thoroughly mapped given the size. Next time I hit the storage locker I'll dig it out.
Jews would sew money into the seams of their clothes to smuggle or hide it from the Germans.
You would think the Eurotrash Eirik would know that bit of history.
History is Racist Eirik
It's The Ben Bernank
What the hell would that guy want that useless shite for? Guess he'll melt it down and make a pet rock. Or maybe fashion it in to a BitCoin. Gold is so 5000years ago,
not trendy like digital bits and cotton/paper with sickly green ink on it. I'd just left the barbarous relics there to be covered over in barnacles and fish shite.
He'll take it to the pawn shop, and see if they'll trade him for some nice shiny quarters.
yeah, post '64 of course
Notice I already f***ed up his left hand. Now he don't walk.
I'm just saying...
Now if we could just get 'm to quit selling it in large lots on the Uzbek market at 3 AM.
Bloomberg couldn't stop saying it had corroded.
They got hammered with Tweets that even they had to acknowledge.
Bloomberg can go fuck themselves, the ignorant twats.
I find their ignorance impressive.
They know more about hairspray, fake tan and wallstreet rockstars than anything with actual value. Not a surprise.
Probably spent more than a million all in to recover the "million" in gold.
Buy a lot of booty with that. ARRRR!
ggg!
I needs me some booty of the woman kind!
Did they salvage the bonds?
I call bull shit, Video of me sticking my hand in the toilet shows the same exact thing.
lol, I have deutsche blut.
Treasure porn at its best. Bravo.
I won't be able to check, but it is nice to know that in 400 years my stack will shine just like these coins.
Now, see, this is why all the BS about all the gold ever been mined in the history of mankind would fit into Catylin's snortch type tales are just that. Fantasy. Because nobody but God has a clue as to how much gold's ever been mined period, end of conversation.
BTW, I like gold, so that's not a knock on it's value. Just some of the horseshit surrounding the fantasy aspect.
More likely, the Annanuki know more than any human.
Dang, they still haven't found all that silver I lost in a tragic sailing accident!
a barbarous shipwreck?
I'd like to put on a snorkel and look for booty on the Federal Reserve's disk drives.
Arrrg, me booty!
That's what she said.
Pet Rocks sure are expensive these days.
Espania? Si! Yo Espania!
Isn't this the same way GS traders act at 4 pm?
Sink a million FRNs and come back hundreds of years later, it won't buy you Jack shit. Hence why we stack.
Don't sell, and you'll be able to found a minor dynastic house in a decade!
Looking forward to a similarly thrilling video of a discovery of old packets of fiat notes.
Go to the Chicago Fed, they shred the mighty FRN and give away little bags of them to the kiddies as trinkets.
Actually had some time to kill once in Chicago near the Fed building so I went and toured the little fiat museum they have in the lobby. It was hilarious, tragic and fascinating all at the same time. I did take some shredded notes back for the kids. That was a great intro into what "money" from the Fed discussion that followed.
David Wilcock has some pics of some old gold backed FRN's which the FED refuses to redeem.
http://www.divinecosmos.com/start-here/davids-blog/1023-financial-tyranny?start=5
The FED has what they consider to be a perfectly good reason to refuse to redeem the notes. They printed so many (thousands of $Trillions) that it would take over four million tons of gold to redeem all the notes.
He probably better set up a blind trust and hide somewhere or the zombies might get him. Those coins are gorgeous. I would maybe keep a few, trade in the rest and buy plain rounds then GTFO of dodge and figure the rest out later.
As a medium for sculpture, relief and other art gold is simply without peer.
No care needed to preserve the beauty of the art. Ever.
Worthless relics.
Today 1 million Federal Reserve Notes = 91 ten ounce gold ingots. I'll check back with again you in 10 years when 1 million dollars = 91 one ounce gold ingots...if we're lucky. If we're unlucky and get Zimbabwe style inflation, $1 million gold will be measured in milligrams.
They better be careful. Our government made that last divers that found treasure return it to Spain. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/feb/01/treasure-trove-galleon-retu...
You beat me to it. I still can't beileve the U.S hosed those guys like that and it got so little attention.
The gold wasn't even really Spains. Didn't they just steal it from the Central and South Americans?
Gee, that was not staged was it?
Totally staged. He had already found them and hand fanned the sand and shell off them- exposing the grey silt you don't see anywhere else.
I have numbers if anyone has a big boat....pm me.....
They will spend $999,999 on legal fees defending their claim
I'm seeing Janet Yellen suitin' up in her one-piece and strapping on some scuba tanks to lay her claim.
Shit, there's more gold down there than in Fort Knox.
Ferk no, she is fitting on a doble-dibble fo sho.
I'm seeing Yellen strapping on her one-piece and heading over to vist Bernanke. Arrrrrr!!!!
See. Bernspanke was right
Gold is an ancient relic
Nowadays, we finance wars with Ctrl+Print
As for the history, the ships were sent to America to fetch gold and silver and under pressure to get back quickly, as the Spanish crown needed to replenish its coffers to finance wars.
Fake video. The coins should have been covered seaweed or barnacles.
Totally agreed.
Just a hint here: If you ever find a few coins jammed into potters clay in three feet of water then don't rub the potters clay off like that because you would seriously be fucking up the coin's value. No one gives a shit where you found a coin in the world of numismatics but rather it's condition. I call bullshit here.
I wouldn't tell a fn soul. Now some government employee is ringing up the cash register tallying up how much their cut is.
IDIOT
Terrorist!
No, but seriously is anyone else alarmed that such a small amount of gold equals $1 million? Soon TPTB will have to outlaw calculators and arithmetic. Yep, the gum chewing public won't be able to perceive inflation if they can't count.
Kept thinkin' nederland coin, but just saw Hispania on the coin.
So yeah, okay, Spanish Coins.
Buffett had thrown them back.
Lucky it wasn't fiat, there wouldn't be anything left!
Did they find any South Sea Company stock down there... The Amazon of its time. And its value would be ..... Zero.
Some where out there, someone is getting a Gold chubby.
Just me, but I would never let anyone know, particularly the unscrupulous authorities, that I'd discovered 1 million in gold. Let boat wrecks of gold stay boat wrecks.
The Trailer Park Boys unfuckulate history. Yelly screamy sweary fat people in bikinis.
Sure is barbarous.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3176595/Florida-family-finds-1-m...
Mutually exclusive to the ZH boatwreck mantra?
Has no one recognized the guy's voice? It's freaking Santa Claus!
Listen again - he even goes ho-ho-ho! Makes me feel kinda sad for the old fart that he has to work so hard in Summer to finance his charity.
Reverse boating accident.
Soon to be taxed or seized by the authorities.
Why do treasure salvors ever open there mouths about these finds ????
The catholic spaniards butchered the natives to loot their gold.
They burnt them alive on stakes.
They competed against each other to cut the natives in half in a single blow on horsebacks.
They murdered their women & children
They burnt down their houses
---
Only for the love of the gold.
---
And Satan America is now doing the same thing to various nations , wars on false pretexts. America changed Ukraine govt. using its own funded NGO crowds of protesters, fired on them and put the blame on existing regime. Changed the regime , looted 33 tons of gold using spyplanes, then sold this gold to Iraq, got their money but the gold is still kept within USA and then funded & then changed Iraqi govt. Then created ISIL and.......
The promise of treasure tempts men to do evil.
People do bad things for gold, but its not gold's fault.
Should be returned to the rightful owners: Latin American countries.
never mind that , in 5 years they call haul up a $1 million boat wreck from the bottom of my lake. consisting of 5 gold coins heheh
"But the biggest drama was the actual moment when Schmitt discovered the gold, captured conveniently in the video below."
??
I see no video, even with all my filters turned off.
I hope he keep them, now is time to buy gold after 3y downtrend not sell it.
If you sprung a woody watching this, you just might be a gold bug.