A group of gold coins, worth over a million dollars, stolen from a historical shipwreck off the Florida coast in 2015, has been recovered. A treasure hunter has been arrested in connection with the theft, reports CBS News.
Major Milestone
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission announced the recovery in a news release, calling it a “major milestone in a long-standing investigation into the theft and illegal trafficking of these priceless historical artifacts.” As required by state and federal law, the recovered artifacts will be returned to their “rightful custodians,” the agency added.
The suspect, Eric Schmitt, is facing charges of dealing in stolen property.
The coins were aboard the 1715 Spanish Treasure Fleet, a convoy of 11 ships filled with treasure from the New World that was lost to a hurricane in July 1715. The shipwreck gave Florida’s Treasure Coast its name.
Schmitt spoke to “CBS Mornings” in July 2015 after his family’s business, Booty Salvage, helped find the coins while searching in shallow waters off the coast of Fort Pierce.
In 2015, members of the Schmitt family, working as contracted salvage operators for a company called “1715 Fleet – Queens Jewels,” uncovered 101 gold coins worth $4.5 million, FWC said. Fifty-one of these coins were reported correctly and adjudicated, but 50 coins were not disclosed and were subsequently stolen. FWC investigators, in collaboration with the FBI, launched an investigation on June 10 for the missing coins.
Evidence linked Schmitt, to the illegal sale of multiple stolen gold coins between 2023 and 2024, FWC said.
Authorities executed multiple search warrants, recovering the stolen coins from private residences, safe deposit boxes and auctions, FWC said. Five stolen coins were reclaimed from a Florida-based auctioneer, who unknowingly purchased them from Schmitt.
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Source: CBS News
