--- title: Treasure Hunters Find Over $1M Worth of Shipwrecked Spanish Gold description: The haul comes from the 300-year-old wreck of the 'Capitana,' off the Florida coast canonical: https://time.com/3974273/spanish-treasure-florida-capitana-1715-treasure-fleet/ author: Joanna Plucinska article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-07-28T04:18:08.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:22:39.662Z og:title: Shipwrecked Spanish Gold Found og:description: Haul comes from a 300-year-old wreck off the Florida coast. og:url: https://time.com/3974273/spanish-treasure-florida-capitana-1715-treasure-fleet/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Shipwrecked Spanish Gold Found twitter:description: Haul comes from a 300-year-old wreck off the Florida coast. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Treasure Hunters Find Over $1 Million Worth of Shipwrecked Spanish Gold off the Florida Coast by [Joanna Plucinska](https://time.com/author/joanna-plucinska/) ## Joanna Plucinska Jul 28, 2015 4:18 AM UTC by [Joanna Plucinska](https://time.com/author/joanna-plucinska/) ## Joanna Plucinska Jul 28, 2015 4:18 AM UTC A Florida family of professional treasure hunters has struck gold after discovering over $1 million worth of coins and jewelry in a huge Spanish shipwreck from the 18th century, _Florida Today_ reports. The Schmitt family, who are subcontractors for treasure hunting company 1715 Fleet–Queens Jewels LLC, discovered the treasure off the Florida Coast in the wreck of the _Capitana_, the flagship of a Spanish treasure fleet. The haul includes 51 gold coins, 40 ft. of ornate gold chain and a Tricentennial Royal, an extremely rare Spanish coin valued at over $500,000, _Florida Today_ says. This is not the first time that gold has been found in this famous shipwreck. Captained by Don Juan Esteban de Ubilla, the _Capitana_ carried an enormous fortune in Spanish jewels when it sunk in a hurricane in July 1715, according to _Florida Today_, and has been the subject of books, documentaries and blog posts. The Schmitts are seasoned treasure hunters, _Florida Today_ adds, having first found gold in September 2013\. They came across the _Capitana_ haul last month, but the news of their discovery was withheld to coincide with the 300th anniversary of the shipwreck. \[[_Florida Today_](http://www.floridatoday.com/story/news/local/2015/07/27/family-finds-sunken-spanish-treasure/30744269/)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3974273/spanish-treasure-florida-capitana-1715-treasure-fleet/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3974273/spanish-treasure-florida-capitana-1715-treasure-fleet/"},"headline":"Treasure Hunters Find Over $1 Million Worth of Shipwrecked Spanish Gold off the Florida Coast","datePublished":"2015-07-28T04:18:08.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:22:39.662Z","description":"Haul comes from the fabled 300-year-old wreck of the Capitana","url":"https://time.com/3974273/spanish-treasure-florida-capitana-1715-treasure-fleet/","keywords":["Newsfeed","U.S.","Bizarre","Florida"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Joanna Plucinska","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/joanna-plucinska/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3974273/spanish-treasure-florida-capitana-1715-treasure-fleet/","name":"Treasure Hunters Find Over $1 Million Worth of Shipwrecked Spanish Gold off the Florida Coast"}}]}] ```