3 Amazing Gold Treasures Found in the Ocean

One of the many advantages of investing in gold bars and coins is that these precious metals tend to maintain their value. These precious metals were valuable for most of human history, often being hoarded by kings, merchants, and criminals alike.

Many of those treasures ended up lost in the ocean over the years. Either because they were lost during transport, dumped into the water, or because the entire city containing the treasure sank to the bottom of the ocean. And thanks to the work of incredible divers and treasure hunters, many of these treasures have been found and recovered in the last century. Here are some of the most interesting treasures found by divers in recent history.

1 - The 1715 Treasure Fleet

This one is interesting because it is still an active excavation site. The wreckage of the 1715 treasure fleet was discovered around 60 years ago, but a series of valuable artifacts were still found among the wreckage as late as ten years ago. The findings included over 50 gold coins and ornate gold chains with a combined length of 40 feet, with a combined value of roughly $4.5 million.

This wreckage is composed of 11 treasure ships that departed from Havana, Cuba, in 1715. The fleet ran into a hurricane and sank off the coast of Florida in that same year. Gold coins that can be traced back to the wreck have been washing up on Florida's treasure coast ever since. And this latest haul is probably not the end of it - experts posit that there might still be hundreds of millions of dollars worth of treasure hidden beneath the waves among the wreck, just waiting to be found.

The best part: the 1715 fleet sank in shallow waters, with some of the treasures found in waters only 15 feet deep. The bad news is that a salvage corporation already owns the rights to the wreck and all the treasures found within.

2 - The Black Swan Spanish Treasure

This caper stirred a fair bit of drama in the international community. One of the largest undersea treasures in history was discovered by a marine exploration company on the coast of Spain in 2007. That company proceeded to stay quiet about the discovery and attempted to move a large chunk of the treasure off the Spanish coast.

The treasure reportedly amounted to 17 tons of gold and silver coins. The precious metals alone made those worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Take a look at the price of gold bars found on this site. That should give you a sense of how much money 17 tons of gold are worth. And the historical value of the artifacts could further increase their sale value.

However, the Spanish government soon caught wind of the situation and sued the company involved. The gold coins ended up having to be returned, and the company was forced to disclose the dive site. The wrecked ship was later identified as the Senora de Las Mercedes, a Spanish frigate ship that sank in 1804 as part of a naval battle.

3 - Caesarea Gold Hoard

In 2015, a group of amateur divers got lucky in a big way. While exploring a sunken dock off the coast of Caesarea, Israel, the group found a few gold coins hidden in the sea bed. Further exploration revealed a hidden cache of incredibly well-preserved gold coins beneath the seabed.

This was not only one of the largest gold caches ever found by divers, but it also contained some of the oldest gold coins ever found. These treasures were traced back to 900 A.D - the coins are over 1000 years old.

Sadly for the divers, the treasure was eventually claimed and collected by the Israeli Antiquities Authority. These coins are so historically significant that it is impossible to properly ascertain how much they could be sold for, but it's safe to say that the entire cache would be worth hundreds of millions of dollars.