CBS News
Gold coins stolen from 18th century shipwreck off Florida coast recovered
Fort Pierce, Florida — A collection of 37 gold coins — with a combined value estimated at more than $1 million — have been recovered after they were stolen by salvagers back in 2015 from a famous 18th century shipwreck off Florida’s Treasure Coast, state authorities announced Tuesday. A professional treasure hunter has been charged in connection with the case.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission announced the recovery in a news release, calling it a “major milestone in a long-standing investigation into the theft and illegal trafficking of these priceless historical artifacts.” As required by state and federal law, the recovered artifacts will be returned to their “rightful custodians,” the agency added.
The suspect, Eric Schmitt, is facing charges of dealing in stolen property.
The coins were aboard the 1715 Spanish Treasure Fleet, a convoy of 11 ships filled with treasure from the New World that were lost to a hurricane in July 1715. The shipwreck gave Florida’s Treasure Coast its name.
Schmitt spoke to “CBS Mornings” in July 2015 after his family’s business, Booty Salvage, helped find the coins while searching in shallow waters off the coast of Fort Pierce.
Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission
“It’s definitely a passion. You gotta want to do this,” Schmitt told CBS News at the time. “…Mostly what we find is garbage on a daily basis — beer cans and lead sinkers and bullets.”
In 2015, members of the Schmitt family, working as contracted salvage operators for a company called “1715 Fleet – Queens Jewels,” uncovered 101 gold coins worth $4.5 million, FWC said. Fifty-one of these coins were reported correctly and adjudicated, but 50 coins were not disclosed and were subsequently stolen. FWC investigators, in collaboration with the FBI, launched an investigation on June 10 for the missing coins.
Evidence linked Schmitt, to the illegal sale of multiple stolen gold coins between 2023 and 2024, FWC said.
Authorities executed multiple search warrants, recovering the stolen coins from private residences, safe deposit boxes and auctions, FWC said. Five stolen coins were reclaimed from a Florida-based auctioneer, who unknowingly purchased them from Schmitt.
Advanced digital forensics identified metadata and geolocation data linking Schmitt to a photograph of the stolen coins taken at the Schmitt family condominium in Fort Pierce, officials said. Furthermore, Schmitt took three of the stolen gold coins and placed them on the ocean floor in 2016 to be found by the new investors of Queens Jewels, the agency said.
The FWC worked with historical preservation experts, including Mel Fisher-Abt. to authenticate and appraise the recovered artifacts.
Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission
Investigators are attempting to recover the remaining 13 stolen coins.
“This case underscores the importance of safeguarding Florida’s rich cultural heritage and holding accountable those who seek to profit from its exploitation,” FWC Investigator Camille Soverel said in a statement.
The gold coins had been minted in Lima, Peru, between 1697 and 1712. Seven days after departing from Havana, Cuba, the 11 ships of the fleet were lost in a hurricane on July 31, 1715, along with at least $400 million worth of gold and jewelry.
One of those, ships, Urca de Lima, opened to the public in September 1987 in Fort Pierce and is protected as part of the Florida Underwater Archaeological Preserves.
For centuries, people have been searching the area for the shipwreck’s treasure.
CBS News reported in 2015 that the state of Florida gets 20% of the profits of treasure hunting off the top. The Schmitt family, as a subcontractor, was to split the bounty 50-50 with Queens Jewels, LLC, the company that owned the rights to the wreckage at the time.
“The more we do this, the bigger the finds we make, so I kind of less believe in luck and more believe in our hard work,” Schmitt told CBS News in 2015.
Watch CBS News
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.
CBS News
Harvey Weinstein accuses Rikers Island of substandard medical treatment, unhygienic conditions in legal claim
NEW YORK — Harvey Weinstein’s lawyers filed a legal claim Tuesday against New York City, alleging that he is receiving substandard medical treatment in unhygienic conditions while in custody at Rikers Island.
The notice of claim, which is the first step in filing a lawsuit, accuses the facility of failing to manage the former movie mogul’s medical conditions, which include chronic myeloid leukemia and diabetes, and negligence ranging from “freezing” conditions to a lack of clean clothes.
The city’s law department and Department of Correction did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
“When I last visited him, I found him with blood spatter on his prison garb, possibly from IV’s, clothes that had not been washed for weeks, and he had not even been provided clean underwear – hardly sanitary conditions for someone with severe medical conditions,” Weinstein’s attorney, Imran H. Ansari, said in a statement, comparing the facility to a “gulag.”
Legal claim says Weinstein returned to Rikers too soon after hospitalizations
Weinstein, 72, has been in city custody since earlier this year, following an appeals court ruling nullifying his 2020 rape conviction in the state. The case is set to be retried in 2025. Weinstein has denied any wrongdoing.
Weinstein was briefly hospitalized in April and again in July for health problems. His team has said he’s been treated for diabetes, high blood pressure, spinal stenosis, COVID-19, and fluid on his heart and lungs.
The legal claim, which seeks $5 million in damages, argues he’d been returned to Rikers each time before he had fully recovered.
Weinstein’s film production company went into bankruptcy proceedings after his convictions, setting up a $17 million fund for a sexual misconduct claims fund.
The Rikers Island jail is slated to be closed in 2027, but the city has pushed back deadlines to do so.
Jean Rather, the wife of former longtime CBS News anchor Dan Rather, died Tuesday at the age of 89, her family announced.
Rather died in Austin, Texas, surrounded by family and friends following a battle with cancer, her family said in a statement.
“Jean was a steadfast advisor and rock of true Texas grit during every storm,” her family said. “She was also the kind of wife who could meet presidents, kings and queens, draft dodgers, criminals, and corporate suits every day with equal ease and a stunning smile.”
Taylor Hill/FilmMagic via Getty Images
Born Jean Goebel in Smithville, Texas, a small town southeast of Austin, Jean was one of three sisters. She went to work immediately after graduating high school.
Jean and Dan met at a Houston radio station and were married 67 years.
Her family described her as an accomplished artist with paintings that were shown in galleries and private collections across the U.S.
She served for eight years as vice chair of the New York City Art Commission. She also served on the boards of several nonprofits, including the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, the UT Press and the Harry Ransom Center.
The 93-year-old Dan Rather spent 44 years with CBS News, as a bureau chief, war correspondent, foreign correspondent and White House correspondent.
He succeeded Walter Cronkite as the anchor of “CBS Evening News” in 1981 and spent 24 years in that chair before signing off in 2005.
In 1963, he reported on the assassination of President John F. Kennedy from Dallas. In an interview last year reflecting on his career, he recounted a conversation he had with Jean at the time.
“I didn’t take time to grieve,” Rather said. “Because I said to myself, it’s my professional responsibility. I remember calling my wife Jean, who was in Houston at the time of the assassination, and she had cautioned me: ‘Dan, sooner or later, you’re going to have make room for your own emotions.'”
Along with her husband, Jean is survived by her son and daughter, Danjack and Robin, and her grandson Andy, along with several members of her extended family.
Her family described her as a “tremendous mother and grandmother, making every game, cheering on every win, putting Band-Aids on every skinned knee, and serving as a confidante and friend to all her family members.”
contributed to this report.
