Is the majority of sunken treasure from Spanish Galleons?

Question

I understand that there is a lot of treasure out there, but it seems that when the wreck of a Galleon is found, there is usually millions of dollars worth of treasure in them. A number of these wrecks have been found, but there are still a lot out there. I can't seem to find any information on these lost wrecks. So does anybody know of any of them?

Answer 1

1a )  The colonies that Spain founded in the New World became the world's largest sources of precious metals. Spain quickly established a policy whereby colonists in the Americas could only trade with Spanish merchant ships.

http://www.nps.gov/history/nr/twhp/wwwlp...



2 a)  Florida is famous for its fabled Spanish treasure galleons. Florida's coastline is dotted with more colonial Spanish wrecks than any other state in the nation, primarily because of three treasure fleet disasters. In 1622, 1715, and again in 1733



http://www.bahamassailing.com/spanishgal...

1b)The Spanish galleon Nuestra Senora de Atocha,sank on September 6, 1622. (160,000 silver Spanish colonial coins were recovered)

2b)The Spanish galleon Jesus Maria de la Limpia Concepcion, better known as the “Capitana”, was lost in 1654 (Estimates place the amount at nearly 10 million pesos of silver)

3b) The Spanish galleon Nuestra Senora de las Maravillas, the almiranta of the 1654-1656 Spanish treasure fleet, was lost on January 4th, 1656. (The shipwreck and her treasure was discovered more than 300 years later ) -Value?-

4b) The Consolacion, a Spanish Armada del Sur (South Sea Armada) galleon, was lost in 1681 (mostly Spanish colonial pillars and waves type cobs from the famous Potosi mint) No mention of actual value.

5b)  The 1715 fleet was a Spanish convoy of twelve ships bound for Spain from Havana .On Wednesday July 31, 1715, a devastating hurricane sank eleven of the fleet's ships off the east coast of Florida(Millions of dollars in gold and silver cobs, ingots, and other treasures )

were lost.)

6b)  The El Cazador, a Spanish brigantine of war, was lost without a trace in the winter of 1784 (The treasure of the El Cazador, consisting of over 400,000 Spanish 8 reales and an equal amount of smaller denomination Spanish colonial coins )

7b)Other Shipwreck

Shipwreck treasure coins from various other wrecks like the 1622 Santa Margarita, 1628 Lucayan Beach, 1641 Concepcion, 1654 La Capitana, 1656 Maravillas, 1682 Joanna, 1707 Association,  and the 1743 Hollandia.  

Answer 2

Get hold of a National Geographic Index.  Over the years, the NG has reported on these.  The goods were often from the Philippines, making use of the winds in the Pacific, then the item transported across the isthmus of central America to be sailed back to Spain.  The ships tried to avoid sailing in hurricane season, but were often caught.