| The craft |
|
How a coin count caught Eric Schmitt
A Florida family brought up 101 gold coins from the 1715 Fleet in 2015. State officers say only 51 made the official list.
|
|
In 2015, the Schmitt family dove the 1715 Fleet wrecks off Fort Pierce, Florida. They brought up 101 gold coins. The family worked as contract divers for 1715 Fleet Queens Jewels, which holds the salvage rights. By the state's count, only 51 of the coins were reported.
The other 50 went missing from the record. Then in June 2024, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission got new evidence. Working with the FBI, its officers tied Eric Schmitt to sales of the missing coins in 2023 and 2024.
By that November, the agency had 37 of the coins back. It put their value at more than $1 million. Officers found them in homes, bank boxes and auction houses. And the agency says Schmitt planted three coins on the seabed in 2016, for the company's new investors to find.
In May 2025, Schmitt took a plea deal in St. Lucie County. He got a year and a day behind bars, then five years of probation with no salvage work. So the divers found the gold, and the coin count found the missing half. |
| A NOAA diver circles a target. Photo: National Park Service. |
|
The legend
Divers lifted more than 1,000 coins from these wrecks in 2025.
Dock talk on the Treasure Coast says you need two things to work the wrecks. One is a dive tank, and the other is a cheap detector. And whatever you fan out of the sand, the story goes, is yours.
A second story says the wrecks were picked clean long ago. Yet the company reported more than 1,000 coins from the 2025 season. It put their value at about $1 million.
|
|
The evidence
Florida can keep up to a fifth of each season's finds for its museums.
Florida law says treasure left in state waters belongs to the state. Only crews with a state permit, or crews working for the company the court picked, may lift it.
A federal court that settles claims at sea made 1715 Fleet Queens Jewels the keeper of the wrecks. Each season, Florida can keep up to 20 percent of the finds for its museums. A federal judge signs off on the split.
On November 26, 2024, the wildlife agency announced the 37 coins. All were made at the Lima mint in Peru between 1697 and 1712. It said 13 more were still missing.
A company filing in federal court says a coin auction house paid back $106,500 to buyers. Then it gave the coins to officers.
|
|
What's still down there
Thirteen stolen coins are still out there, and the state wants them back.
Two kinds of gold. The first is the 13 coins the wildlife agency still has not found. They are gold coins from the Lima mint, dated 1697 to 1712, and the state treats them as stolen property.
The second is whatever the 1715 Fleet still holds. Last year's haul shows the sites keep producing. And under the court's split, the state takes up to a fifth.
The fair objection is that the system took nine years to catch the gap. It only surfaced when coins hit the market. But a signed inventory is what let officers prove the gap at all.
|
|
What's true
Eight claims. Five are documented. Three are campfire stories.
Legend
A tank and a cheap detector are enough to work the wrecks.
The coins you fan up belong to you.
The 1715 Fleet wrecks were picked clean long ago.
Evidence
Treasure in state waters belongs to Florida. Florida Statutes, section 267.061.
The state can keep a fifth of each season's finds. Federal court lease.
Of 101 coins, 50 went unreported. Wildlife agency release, November 2024.
An auction house paid back $106,500. Company's federal court filing.
Schmitt took a plea deal in May 2025. St. Lucie County court record.
|
|
Where it is
The Urca de Lima preserve lies just 200 yards out, in water 10 to 15 feet deep.
The wrecks lie off Florida's Atlantic coast between Melbourne and Fort Pierce, about 118 miles north of Miami. That stretch runs about 46 miles, close to the length of Rhode Island. One wreck, the Urca de Lima, is a state underwater preserve. It lies in 10 to 15 feet of water, 200 yards off the beach, and removing artifacts there is against the law.
|
| Fort Pierce is about 99 miles from Orlando in a straight line. Map: Treasure Hunt. |
|
The kit
On the maker's chart, the $1,889 kit finds a quarter at 13.5 inches.
The cheap one is the Nokta PulseDive, about $229 at Serious Detecting. It works to 200 feet deep and doubles as a pinpointer. And forum testers report coins at roughly 3 to 4.5 inches.
The serious one is the Aquascan AQ1B diver kit with an 8-inch coil, about $1,889 at Kellyco. Both use pulse induction, which ignores salt water but can't sort gold from iron well. The maker's chart has the AQ1B finding a quarter at 13.5 inches. But that reach costs eight times as much.
Either one is legal to own. Using it on the wreck sites is legal only on a crew under the company's contract. So call the company first, and check each beach's rules before you swing.
|
|
Happy Treasure Hunting!
|
|
P.S. Thirteen of the coins are still missing. If a dealer offers you a Lima gold coin from 1697 to 1712 with no papers, call the wildlife agency at 888-404-3922.
|
|
Sources FWC release, Nov. 26, 2024; WPTV, May 21, 2025; TCPalm, Jan. 21, 2025; AP, Oct. 2, 2025; Live Science; Florida Statutes 267.061; Kellyco; Serious Detecting; Detector Prospector; National Park Service; NOAA; DVIDS
Send the legend from your town to [email protected] |