LIMA, Peru: Peruvian consumer rights advocates urged Peru’s government Monday to claim some US$500 million in gold and silver coins found in a sunken galleon off the coast of Spain last year.

Some 17 tons (15.4 metric tons) of coins were discovered by a Tampa, Fla.-based treasure-hunting company, Odyssey Marine Exploration, when it raised a shipwreck west of the Straits of Gibraltar in May 2007.

Spain’s government also claims ownership of the wreck and its contents — and has sued Odyssey, which hauled away the treasure.

But the Association of Peruvian Consumers and Users said the South American nation also has a right to the booty, since it believes the coins were made with Peruvian metals and minted in Lima.

“This gold was stolen from the Incas,” said Jaime Delgado, the consumer group’s president.

A spokeswoman for Peru’s National Institute of Culture said the government could take legal action if its own research finds the coins are of Peruvian origin.

But David Avellar Neblett, a maritime lawyer in Florida, said Spain’s claim would still likely override Peru’s because legal precedent establishes that warships and other state vessels — and their cargo — remain national property after submerged.

Lawyers for Odyssey and Spain’s government told a federal magistrate judge in Tampa on Monday that they are still exchanging information, which means that the case may not go to trial until next year.

The galleon is thought to have been sunk in a naval battle with Britain off the coast of Portugal in 1804.

A battle royale over an estimated $500 million treasure that a Florida deep-sea salvage company found last year is due for a fresh round in court in Florida on Monday.

The Spanish government now says the 500,000 silver and gold coins that the company, Odyssey Marine Exploration, found last year in the Atlantic Ocean near Spain came from one of its ships that sunk in a 19th-century naval battle. Spain wants the entire treasure returned, but Odyssey insists Spain may have no right to it.

Lawyers for both sides are due to present arguments Monday morning in a U.S. federal court in Tampa, Florida, in another round of the case that started last year, Odyssey spokeswoman Natja Igney told CNN.

Odyssey found the coins last year and quietly airlifted them in crates from Gibraltar, a British colony on Spain’s southern tip, to Florida for safekeeping. The company then said it was unclear how the huge quantity of coins it found on the seabed had gotten there. It declined to reveal the location, citing security reasons, and mysteriously dubbed the site “Black Swan.”

But the Spanish government, at a recent Madrid news conference, said it’s really not so complicated.

“The mystery is over,” said James Goold, a U.S. lawyer representing Spain, told the news conference. “Using a variety of methods to conceal what it was doing, Odyssey Marine Exploration stripped the gravesite that is the Spanish navy warship Nuestra Senora de las Mercedes of coins and other objects. The coins and other artifacts that Odyssey took from the site are documented to have been on the Mercedes,” Goold said.

The Mercedes was a 34-gun frigate, a ship very common at the time in the Spanish navy. The Mercedes left Peru, stopped in Uruguay and was just a day’s sail from Spain when the four-ship Spanish squadron was attacked by a British fleet in October 1804, according to a Spanish government’s filing to the Florida court. (more…)

Tampa, FL - May 29, 2008 - Odyssey Marine Exploration, Inc. (NasdaqCM: OMEX), the world leader in the field of deep-ocean shipwreck exploration, today filed Admiralty Arrest Complaints in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida on two separate shipwreck sites recently discovered by the Company.

Both sites lie within the general area of the English Channel but are outside the territorial waters or contiguous zone of any sovereign nation. The sites both contain cannon and other artifacts which are believed to date from the Colonial period. Odyssey has conducted preliminary surveys but has not yet been able to confirm the identity of either site. The Company’s archaeological and conservation teams are currently developing archaeological excavation and conservation plans for both sites.

As with other shipwreck sites that the Company discovers, if either site can be identified, any potential claimants will be notified through appropriate private or public notices.

Odyssey’s core business is shipwreck exploration and archaeological excavation, so filing arrests on shipwreck sites to protect the Company’s legal interests occurs in the normal course of business. For security reasons, no additional information about these sites is being released at this time.

Odyssey Marine Exploration, Inc. (NASDAQ:OMEX), the world leader in deep ocean shipwreck exploration, has granted Primetime Emmy® Award-winning JWM Productions exclusive access to film Odyssey’s 2008 Atlas Search expeditions to produce a shipwreck exploration television series. Discovery Channel expects to premiere the 11-part High Definition (HD) series to worldwide audiences in 2009. Production is slated to begin immediately.

“We have the most experienced team of shipwreck explorers in the world manning our ships, and on a regular basis they make amazing discoveries in the deep ocean - things that have never before been seen by human eyes. We’re proud of the exploration and archaeological work our team accomplishes in the challenging offshore environment, and for a long time we’ve been looking for the right format to share the excitement of our expeditions with viewers around the world,” stated Greg Stemm, Odyssey’s Chief Executive Officer.

“JWM has a proven track record of producing smart, compelling television and Discovery Channel is the #1 media and television brand in overall quality for the eighth straight year. We’re sure that Discovery’s viewers will enjoy ‘being there’ during our shipwreck search and exploration expeditions,” Stemm continued. (more…)

By Mark Ferguson for Coin Values

Hearing of a “hoard” of coins conjures up images of surplus, oversupply and the uncommon that suddenly becomes common. This happened in 1962 when hundreds of thousands of the formerly rare Mint State 1903-O Morgan dollars surfaced in the form of $1,000 canvas bags of silver dollars that had been locked in a vault at the Philadelphia Mint since 1929.

The values of the previously few known Uncirculated examples of the 1903-O Morgan dollar quickly plummeted from between $1,000 and $2,000 each all the way down to about $25.

However, the opposite effect occurred when the LaVere Redfield hoard of more than 400,000 silver dollars, most graded Mint State, of various issues, common and rare, were skillfully marketed and disbursed. Market prices for these coins actually rose substantially during the next several years during the late 1970s in an expansion of the collector and dealer demand for silver dollars in general.

Read Full Article