# New Spanish shipwreck find in just 6 feet of water



## macfixer01 (Aug 24, 2015)

350 gold coins brought up off the Florida coast, worth $4.5 Million they're saying...

http://www.cbsnews.com/videos/spanish-gold-coins-worth-millions-found-off-florida-coast/


----------



## Lmarc1 (Oct 14, 2015)

Finds like this are great for bragging rights, but it can also be a heck of a headache. This may be tied up in court for years, with the finders last in line behind such claimants as the Government of Spain, heirs of the original ship owners, the Catholic church, the State of Florida, the US Government, the IRS, sundry and assorted insurance companies, and a couple hundred lawyers all looking to grab a quick score.


----------



## Barren Realms 007 (Oct 14, 2015)

Loose lips sink ships.


----------



## rickbb (Oct 19, 2015)

If I ever stumbled across something like this no one would ever know, not even the wife. 

It would all be parceled out and converted to cash one at a time, as far under the radar as possible.


----------



## 4metals (Oct 19, 2015)

> If I ever stumbled across something like this no one would ever know, not even the wife.
> 
> It would all be parceled out and converted to cash one at a time, as far under the radar as possible.




Back in the days of Mel Fisher that was the thinking that got so many divers and treasure hunters into trouble. The state has since realized that they were losing out as many historic finds were unreported and lost to history. Now the state can claim up to 20% of the find and the finder (unless they are not the conservator of the shipwreck) keeps 80%. 

There are still legal hoops to jump through to become the conservator of a shipwreck but a few larger companies seem to have made a living by doing exactly that.


----------



## rickbb (Oct 20, 2015)

4metals said:


> There are still legal hoops to jump through to become the conservator of a shipwreck but a few larger companies seem to have made a living by doing exactly that.



Exactly, the only winners are the lawyers, again.

Edit, tried to fix the quote stuff brackets, but failed.


----------

