$250K in Gold Found 100 Feet From Florida Coast

You may want to pack your snorkeling gear the next time you're headed to Florida's eastern coast. The owner of a shipwreck-seeking salvage company has announced that he discovered 48 gold coins worth as much as $250,000 off Wabasso Beach on Saturday. And as CNN reports, he made the find just 100 feet from shore, at a depth of just 6 feet. The coins seem to be in good condition, so much so that their dates can be read—they were made between 1697 and 1714.

Brent Brisben was trawling an area befitting a search: the "Treasure Coast," a part of Florida along the Atlantic where 11 treasure-laden Spanish galleons sank in a 1715 hurricane. But as WPTV reports, in their three years of searching, this is only the second time they've found so many coins. "It sounds glamorous, but it can take years to find anything," says Captain Greg Bounds. "A lot of times, it's beer cans, fishing weights, just garbage." (For more shipwreck news, head here.)