Divers find gold bars, coins in Fla. Keys

[BoneDiver]

Pretty awesome find, last I heard state could put dibs on anything found in state waters. Divers dream come true.

 

[Mawg]

Well the way I see it, if you find the "motherload". Stay quite do not tell anyone melt it down if gold or silver, that makes it untraceable and if you hit a emerald pocket take them to Hong Kong and sell them to dealer's. Emeralds do not set off metal detectors at the airport. Plus once the lawyers get involved-you gonna get a lesson in "why did I open my mouth".......just a thought.

Back in '98 when he was still alive, Felipe Quinones took me and two other divers to the East side of Cozumel so that we could dive on an old wreck. His boat, the Cinpatica, left Caleta Harbor early for its long trip around the island. Felipe sent a truck for us and we drove to the other side where we met the boat just off shore from Mescalitos Bar. The three of us swam out about 300 yards and got on the boat. We headed north up the coast and about 45 minutes later, we stopped. One of the crew dove down with an anchor line and tied it off to the end of a cannon that was sticking out of a medium sized coral head. There were 9 cannons total and most were lying in the sand. We had no equipment with us , only dive knives to work with. We scrounged around for about an hour and came up with a few pieces of burnt wood, some old rusting tackle and a couple of cannon balls. One of the crew who dove with us, found a coin. It was silver, about a 4 or 6 real. It was very dark from tarnish but Felipe cleaned it up with something he had on board and soon it was very shiny. It was minted and the date was 1726.

Felipe told me he knew where the 2 swivel cannons were also and promised that one day we would return for a more thorough search. I bought an underwater metal detector and scoops but Felipe died a couple years after that trip and I haven't been able to get back to the wreck since. One of these days I hope to return.