Sunken treasure washed up in Spain

SPAIN has rejected a Peruvian claim to a huge treasure haul recovered from the wreckage of a ship that set sail from Lima’s port more than 200 years ago.

Spain received the nearly 600,000 coins – mostly silver but a few made of gold – this weekend after they were flown to Madrid from the United States, marking the end of a five-year court battle with a Florida deep-sea exploration firm.

In 2007, Odyssey Marine Exploration found the remains of a ship believed to be the Spanish frigate Nuestra Senora de las Mercedes near the Strait of Gibraltar, sunk by the British in 1804. Odyssey’s ownership of the haul was disputed by Spain.

Peru last week attempted to get the transfer from the US stopped, arguing that the gold and silver on the ship was mined, refined and minted in its territory, which at the time was part of the Spanish empire.

But Carmen Marcos, deputy director of Spain’s National Museum of Archaeology, said yesterday the coins were minted not just in Peru but also in Bolivia, Colombia and Chile.

And she said the argument was not about monetary value but rather history, saying: “These coins are not money. They are archaeological pieces.”

Spanish experts will now examine the 594,000 coins and other artifacts before putting them on public display.