Treasure-hunting Sanford family strikes gold — again
(Great images of the loot on the video at the link)
Last year on Labor Day, the Schmitts made national news when they pulled several pieces of a solid gold chain — more than 60 feet in all — from the water off the coast of Fort Pierce.
Then in the same place during Memorial Day weekend, they found their first major haul this hunting season: an intricate religious artifact lost in the Atlantic Ocean for nearly 300 years.
"It was our follow-up to our big find," said Lisa Schmitt, whose family owns the company Booty Salvage and hunts for sunken artifacts on Florida's Treasure Coast. "It's been there 300 years, and it's still intact. It's just amazing that it's not broken."
Their latest discovery was the back portion of a handcrafted gold-filigree pyx, a vessel used to hold the Eucharist, or the symbolic representation of Jesus' body during the Christian observance of Communion.
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/breakingnews/os-sanford-family-finds-sunken-treasure-20140729,0,1244901.story