Treasure hunters in Brevard County, Florida, made an exciting and historic discovery in May that has drawn lots of attention.
Treasure hunter and boat captain Grant Gitschlag said of the find, “It was kind of numbing in a way, you know. You don’t expect that. You always hope for it, but you never expect it,” Fox 35 reported Friday.
When the group of hunters performed the dive in May they messaged Sal Guttuso, who contracts divers to explore the Spanish ships sunk from 1715. Over a two-day period, the hunters found 214 silver coins.
Guttuso is the leader of 1715 Fleet Queen’s Jewels LLC, whose website said the crew of the Lilly May recovered what it referred to as “silver cobs.”
“These are mostly large denomination (4 and 8 Reales),” the site read, while also praising the hunters.
Per the Fox article, the Spanish ships initially went down during a hurricane, and Guttuso added that many of them were broken into pieces which scattered the treasure. Now, Guttuso will keep the treasure in his care.
“His company is the U.S. District Court’s custodian and exclusive salvors of the historic 1715 treasure fleet. Right now, conservation efforts are underway to clean up all of the historic coins,” the Fox report said.
In February 2020, three men found a cache of 300-year-old silver coins buried at a beach in Indian River County, Florida, according to Breitbart News.
The group found 22 Spanish coins, belt buckles, daggers, cutlery, porcelain, household items, and cufflinks.
“It’s very special when you find something like that,” Jonah Martinez said. “It’s very unique and it’s very romantic.”
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Martinez noted that he was not passionate about the money but simply wanted to preserve the treasure for the next generation to enjoy.
“This is our history out here. We are not trying to profit out here, we are just collecting pieces of history. That’s cool if you ask me,” he said.
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