Gems and Gold of the 1715 Fleet — Sebastian, Florida

Silver coins make up most of what the 1715 Fleet has given back, but the wrecks off Sebastian and the rest of Indian River County have also produced gold coins, gold chain and jewelry set with Colombian emeralds, diamonds and pearls. The richest gem finds have come from two sites: the Cabin Wreck south of Sebastian Inlet and Corrigan's Beach wreck north of Vero Beach. In a Fall 2024 study, GIA noted that besides coins, loose stones, mainly emeralds, as well as silver and gold jewelry items have also been recovered from the 1715 wrecks.

The emeralds fit the fleet's cargo. GIA explains that after conquering Bogota in 1538, Spain gained control of Colombia's emerald deposits, chiefly the Muzo mines, and that the jewelry recovered suggests a New World manufacturing industry employing expert artisans using local materials. The gold coins recovered off Vero Beach from 2010 to 2015 were struck in Colombia, Mexico and Peru and dated between 1692 and 1715, according to Numismatic News.

The most famous jewels aboard the 1715 Fleet were a royal commission. CoinWeek reports that more than 1,200 pieces of rare jewelry from the Americas were being sent to Spain as dowry pieces for Elizabeth of Parma, new wife of Philip V. Her requests included a heart made of 130 pearls, 14 carat pearl earrings, a coral rosary and an emerald ring weighing 74 carats, stored in the cabin of the fleet's senior officer. Elizabeth never saw any of it, CoinWeek notes.

Some of it may have reached Sebastian's beaches. The 1715 Fleet Society reports that on July 3, 1993 a salvage crew trying the Cabin Wreck site recovered a butterfly brooch shaped like a bow of ribbons that contained 161 rose-cut and emerald-cut diamonds, a matching floral brooch, and one of a pair of gold drop earrings. The second earring turned up on July 9. Each earring is inlaid with 53 diamonds, and the lower part is shaped like a pineapple, matching survivors' testimony that described pineapple-shaped earrings among the queen's jewels. The Society says the 1993 Cabin Wreck pieces now reside in a private collection.

Emerald crosses are the signature gem find off Indian River County. The 1715 Fleet Society records a gold cross set with six emeralds found at Corrigan's Beach on November 24, 1984, under only four inches of sand. It measures 1 5/16 inches tall, its center stone is estimated at 60 points (0.6 carat) and the others at 40 each, and the metal is 22K solid gold. Nineteen years later, on June 1, 2003, a dive crew working in waist deep water in front of the Cabin Wreck recovered what a Society history describes as a gold box with two rings and a long gold chain and a cross with six emeralds, the biggest treasure in years from the Cabin Wreck site.

Recent finds have been tested in the laboratory. GIA's Carlsbad laboratory examined six pieces recovered by 1715 Fleet Queens Jewels, which GIA describes as licensed to operate in an offshore area between Sebastian Inlet and Fort Pierce. The standout was a gold and emerald pendant, about 3.5 inches wide, containing 61 of the original 94 emeralds; 33 stones were presumably lost on the seafloor. A second piece was a gold ring set with a Colombian emerald surrounded by two amethysts. GIA found jagged three-phase fluid inclusions and low iron and potassium in the stones, confirming a Colombian origin for the 1715 emeralds.

The state holds emeralds too. Among items photographed from the State of Florida collection and published by the 1715 Fleet Society with the Bureau of Archaeological Research is a manicure toothpick with an emerald and a scimitar and cupid handle, alongside an earring with three pearls and several gold rings, one with hands and heart.

The first great gold came from the south end of the field. The 1715 Fleet Society glossary records that some 3,376 Spanish colonial gold coins were recovered at the Douglass Beach wreck near Fort Pierce in the first two months of the 1964 season, the haul that early Real Eight letters from the Sebastian area nicknamed the Gold Wreck.

The largest modern gold recovery came off Indian River County in 2015. Reuters reported that salvors found a trove of $4.5 million worth of Spanish gold coins 300 years to the day after the 1715 fleet sank, 350 coins in all, including nine rare royal eight escudos; only 20 such coins were known to exist before. Numismatic News added that the coins lay in only six feet of water just a hundred feet from the beach in Vero Beach, and the 1715 Fleet Society places all nine Royals at the Corrigan's Wreck site near Vero Beach. A separate group, found on June 17, 2015 at the Douglas Beach site, included a fully dated 1715 eight escudos Royal, according to a Society report.

Royals are the rarest 1715 gold. These round, carefully struck Mexico City coins were called galanos by the Spanish, and the Society credits the Real 8 salvors with naming them Royals. It estimates fewer than fifty have been recovered from the 1715 Fleet, and that seven reside in the State of Florida collection. Smaller gold continues to surface: in July 2017 a diver working the Corrigan's area off Wabasso recovered a single escudo minted in Mexico about 1714, according to The E-Sylum, and in 2025 Sebastian Daily reported more than 1,000 silver coins and five gold coins from one summer season.

Gold chain is a recurring find on the 1715 sites near Sebastian. A July 2015 CNN Wire report datelined Sebastian said Queens Jewels had recovered 51 gold coins and 40 feet of ornate gold chain, centered on a single Royal made for Philip V and dated 1715, and that about 50 feet of gold chain and a gold filigree pyx had been found in 2014. The Institute of Art and Law described that pyx as the missing piece of a three hundred year old gold filigree necklace worn by a priest to carry the communion host. Numismatic News reported that in 2010 some 1715 coins were recovered inside a 3 1/2 foot bronze rail gun.

GIA's 2024 analysis shows how this gold was made. Two chains from the 1715 wreck differed: the larger was built by bending and twisting thick gold wire, while the finer chain had each link soldered in place. Most of the pieces were high karat gold of nonstandard purity, typically from 20.1 to 21.5K, but with one 13.2K piece, which GIA attributes to metal refined directly from natural sources. The State of Florida collection holds raw gold too, including 17.54 grams of gold dust. In the 1960s the Real Eight's museum, according to the 1715 Fleet Society archive, displayed a solid gold ingot that weighed seven pounds.

Much of the public share sits in Tallahassee. The 1715 Fleet Society explains that from the early 1960s Florida leased salvage rights and, through an annual division of finds, the State of Florida acquired a vast collection of Spanish colonial coins and artifacts, now under the care of the Bureau of Archaeological Research. In March 2026 the Florida Department of State reported that close to eighty thousand objects from state collections are on exhibit and research loan to over one hundred venues, and that 1715 Fleet silver will be shown at the Museum of Florida History when it reopens.

The rest is dispersed. Salvors keep most finds under their contracts; Sebastian Daily reported in 2025 that the state receives 20 percent of recovered 1715 items. The 1993 Cabin Wreck jewels are privately held, coins from the 2010, 2013 and 2015 Queens Jewels recoveries were offered to collectors in 2016, according to Numismatic News, and the company has said its 2025 finds will be conserved before select pieces are exhibited at local museums on the Treasure Coast.