Saturday, February 25, 2012

Legal Battle Over Treasure Find Ends In Shipment Of Coins To Spain

For the Shipwreck and Treasure hunters of Odyssey Marine Exploration, the courts sadly ruled against their claim that they had priority and ownership of the sunken treasure trove they found.

Instead the US Courts found the treasure belonged to Spain, and led to the transportation of over 594,000 silver coins by air to Europe.


Interestingly enough, Peru had also raised a claim that the treasure, possibly from the Spanish galleon Nuestra Senora de las Mercedes, off Portugal's Atlantic coast near the Straits of Gibraltar belonged to it as the treasure had originated there.

The treasure was estimated to be numismatically worth over $500 million dollars.

The US government was publicly favoring the Spanish claim over the US company's rights of discovery and salvage.

The article in the Detroit News has more details.

As reported in the article, Spain has rejected selling the coins to the public to reduce its debt.

No comments: