Spain Culture News
Odyssey treasure was made up of Spanish coins
By h.b.
Sep 22, 2007 - 12:10 PM

A report in El País newspaper has revealed that the 500,000 coins which the Odyssey Marine Exploration company found off the coast of the Algarve last April and May are Spanish coinage.

They consist of ‘pieces of eight’ (The Spanish dollar of the time used as currency worldwide) and also Spanish ‘escudos’.

The revelation was made by the company itself when if completed customs forms in Gibraltar on April 10 and May 16, the dates that they took their haul out of the colony and back to their base in Florida.

The first licence lists the amount of each coin, 203 gold escudos valued at 203,000 dollars, 10,090 silver reales worth 1.2 million dollars, 200 copper ingots worth 660 dollars, three gold boxes worth 30,000 dollars and other items including bronze and porcelain.

The second licence lists 557 buckets full of silver coins with a total weight of 14.5 tons and an estimated value of 2.5 million dollars.

It takes the value of the total haul to over four million dollars. However that figure is the one given for insurance and other purposes in the United States, the real worth of the treasure is estimated to be more than four times that.

The fact that the Odyssey company has admitted the coinage found is Spanish, does not, the company claims, mean it was found on a Spanish ship. On that point they insist that they still have not been able to establish the nationality of the vessel, a point key as to which nation or nations might later claim part of the treasure.

The Spanish Government thinks the Gibraltar licences are a clear indication that the boat was also Spanish, but although they have known this detail since last July, they have not spoken of it.

One theory is that the ship concerned is the ‘Nuestra Señora de la Mercedes’ which sunk in 1804 in the battle of Cape Santa María during an attack from British ships, although this has been dismissed by the Odyssey director Gerg Stemm.

He told the EFE news agency that his company invited the Spanish Ministry of Culture to take part in his expedition last year. ‘At first’, he said, ‘they did not show any interest, now they do. They have tried to force us to give information which we consider could put the site where we found the treasure in danger’.