Spain and US company at odds over silver coin treasure

May 22, 2007, 13:51 GMT

Madrid/Tampa - The Spanish government and a US treasure- hunting company are at odds over what is believed to be the world's biggest coin treasure retrieved from a shipwreck.

Spanish Culture Minister Carmen Calvo, quoted by Tuesday's media reports, confirmed that Spain has launched an investigation into the discovery of an unidentified wreck by Florida-based Odyssey Marine Exploration.

Spain will try to recover the treasure which has been taken to the United States, if the shipwreck turns out to be Spanish or in Spanish territorial waters, the minister added.

Odyssey, however, said no country had a claim to the treasure and that it had acted in full conformity with the law.

The company earlier announced it had recovered more than 500,000 silver coins weighing over 17 tons, hundreds of gold coins, worked gold and other artifacts from a shipwreck in the Atlantic Ocean.

It said it did not know the nationality of the wreck it calls The Black Swan, and refused to disclose its location to 'prevent speculation.'

'I would have liked the company to give much more data,' Calvo said, describing Odyssey's attitude as 'suspicious.'

Odyssey had been granted permission by Spain to search for the wreck of the British warship Sussex, which sank in the Strait of Gibraltar in 1694 and which is believed to contain a treasure of gold coins.

The wreck now found was not the Sussex, the company said in a press release from its headquarters in Tampa, Florida.

Odyssey had only been known to search for the Sussex, and had not been granted permission to extract objects from its wreck, Calvo pointed out.

Odyssey said The Black Swan was located beyond the waters or jurisdiction of any country and that the coins had been imported legally into the US.

It pledged to present the Spanish government with an official account of its activities.

Even if some other entity made a legitimate claim to the shipwreck, Odyssey would still be entitled to the majority of the recovered goods as a salvage award, the company argued.

Some of the silver coins could be worth 4,000 dollars (2,975 euros) each, and the gold coins even more, according to Odyssey. The value of the entire treasure has been estimated at half a billion dollars.

Spanish waters are littered with hundreds of shipwrecks, and Spain is wary of treasure-hunters who could loot them for commercial purposes.