Amazing Gold Coins Recovered from the 1715 Spanish Treasure Fleet

1715 San Miguel Plate Fleet Treasure Story
In July 1715, the San Miguel Plate Fleet was returning from the New World to Spain to replenish the King’s vaults after a long and costly war between France and Spain, known as the Spanish War of Succession, in which Philip V took the throne.

To solve this problem, the Spanish assembled one of the richest treasure fleets ever. The war almost bankrupted the Spanish crown, and the treasure in the holds of the 12-ship fleet was needed to help restore the crown to its glory.

Florida in the 18th century remained an isolated outpost of the Spanish Empire. Its most important mission was to secure the homeward route of the Spanish New World Treasure Fleets. These fleets had long funded Spain’s declining role in European & world affairs.

The Plate Fleet consisted of five ships from Mexico, six ships from Spain, and a French ship, which all carried significant quantities of gold, silver, pearls, emeralds, jewels, and other precious items. As a defense against pirates and privateers, the fleet waited until just before the hurricane season before setting off from Havana in July 1715.

This was a tragic mistake, as just seven days after leaving Cuba, a bad storm turned into a fierce hurricane on July 31, 1715… taking the vast treasure hoard and the ship’s crew to the bottom of the ocean.

Eleven of the twelve treasure ships sank at 2 a.m. taking 1,500 sailors and the vast riches to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, just off the east coast of Florida, in an area south of Melbourne to a point south of Fort Pierce.

The Greatest Naval Disaster of the Period
The estimated value of all the lost treasure, comprised of gold coins, bars, and jewelry. Among the personal losses that King Philip V suffered from the Fleet tragedy were eight chests of gold and silver, as well as jewels designated as part of the dowry for his new 22-year-old wife.

He had married Elizabeth of Parma by proxy in 1714 and was still trying to make a good impression on the reluctant lady. More than 1,200 pieces of rare jewelry from the Americas were being sent to Spain as dowry pieces for Elizabeth. Her requests included a heart made of 130 pearls, 14-carat pearl earrings, a pure coral rosary with large-sized beads, and an emerald ring weighing 74 carats.

Although the Spanish recovery efforts did yield some of the treasure over the ensuing months, it was impossible to recover all the treasure due to the limited technology available at the time. The exploits of pirates and privateers that raided the Spanish camps on the beaches, made off with a lot of treasure booty.

Treasure Fleet Discovery
In the ensuing years, various items of treasure occasionally washed up on nearby shores after large storms, but the treasure still lay at the ocean bottom just waiting to be discovered.

Over time, the eleven 1715 Fleet shipwrecks were largely forgotten until some adventurist divers made it a mission to recover the lost treasure some 300 years later.

1715 Treasure Fleet Lost and Found…
The discovery of the latest treasure trove occurred on July 31, 2015, exactly 300 years to the day of the fleet’s sinking. Over 350 gold coins, including nine extremely rare Royals large presentation pieces, were sold privately to anonymous collectors for an average of $275,000 per piece.

The treasure coins, minted in Colombia, Mexico, and Peru, were discovered, and recovered in only six feet of water, just a hundred feet offshore in Vero Beach Florida, exactly 300 years to the day of the fleet’s sinking.

The previous discovery of gold and silver coins in a sunken cannon in 2010, was an amazing find and recovery story. For decades, treasure hunters have told tales of treasure hidden inside cannons, but the actual recovery was the first time the treasure tale was ever validated.

Fifty gold coins and 40 silver coins were discovered in the breech of the cannon, a 3 ½ foot bronze rail gun, the first bronze rail/swivel cannon ever recovered from the 1715 Fleet.

Today, seven of the 12 ships have been located, but only a small percentage of the treasure has been recovered, making the 1715 Fleet one of the richest treasure hoards yet to be found, valued at over $2 billion today.

History Realized and Certified
These historic treasure gold pieces have been examined, authenticated, and graded by Numismatic Guaranty Corporation (NGC), who worked directly with the recovery group to not only preserve the important provenance of these treasure coins, but also the story of their individual recovery.

For the first time, specific dive missions and discovery finds are referenced on the NGC certification label. All are amazingly preserved and graded in mint-state condition, one of them in MS66.

Mark Salzberg, Chairman of NGC had this to say about these amazing coins:

“Coinage of the 1715 Fleet offers up rare riches, providing researchers a unique opportunity to study the trade and transport of the day and gives collectors the chance to acquire a high-grade example of a coin from the golden shipwreck treasure of lore.  A quantity of uncirculated Spanish gold coins like this simply doesn’t exist outside of shipwreck discovery.”