An American treasure hunter has been granted a second chance to apply for a licence to recover artifacts from a wrecked tall ship that was part of a fleet carrying loot plundered from the White House during the War of 1812.

The Nova Scotia Supreme Court ruled this week that the provincial government erred when it failed to give the company a chance to counter claims by the British government that the HMS Fantome still belongs to England.

The company, Sovereign Exploration Associates International Inc., has conducted dives on the site off Prospect, N.S., and planned to recover some of the thousands of coins and other artifacts on the ocean floor.

But that plan was shelved when the British government claimed that it still owned the famed Royal Navy vessel that sank on Nov. 24, 1812.

At the time, the two-masted, square-rigged brig was leading a convoy of ships to Halifax three months after British and Canadian troops invaded Washington, looting and torching the U.S. president’s home and all public buildings. Read Full Story

TAMPA, Fla. - (Business Wire) Odyssey Marine Exploration, Inc. (Nasdaq:OMEX), the world leader in the field of deep-ocean shipwreck exploration, announced today that Spain’s claim in Admiralty case number 8:07-CV-00616 has been dismissed pursuant to a motion filed on behalf of the Government of Spain. The shipwreck in this case is believed to be a 20th century passenger liner reported to be carrying valuable cargo.

Following Odyssey’s May 2007 announcement of the recovery of 17 tons of silver and gold coins from the “Black Swan” site, Spain filed claims with the U.S. District Court’s Tampa Division in three of the Company’s pending admiralty arrests. Odyssey made it clear that the Company was unaware of evidence suggesting any potential Spanish interest in the site, yet Spain pursued its claim without providing any information as to the basis for that claim.

“We are very pleased that Spain has acknowledged that its claim to this particular shipwreck is unfounded, and we are now looking forward to moving ahead in resolving all issues expeditiously with the other two cases,” said Greg Stemm, Odyssey’s Chief Executive Officer.

“Technically, Spain’s dismissal of its claim in this case has no bearing on the other two arrests, but this shows that just because Spain files a claim against a particular wreck site does not mean it has a valid basis, or as in this case, any evidence whatsoever to support that claim,” commented Melinda MacConnel, General Counsel for Odyssey. (more…)

A unique silver treasure has been uncovered near Sweden’s Arlanda airport.

On Tuesday, archaeologists from the Swedish National Heritage Board dug up the largest collection of Viking-era silver coins found in the Uppland region north of Stockholm in modern times.

The treasure consists of 450 silver coins and was discovered during an investigation of an Iron Age grave site located beside the Steningehöjden area in Sundveda near Arlanda.

Some of the coins come from Bagdad and Damascus and are thought to be from 500 to 840 AD and appear to have been buried around 850 AD. They were found on the edge of a grave which is believed to be 1000 years older than the treasure.

By Sam Jones - Dispute over sunken ship involves US firm, Spain and Peru, and raises British fears

The crew of Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes must have thought their ship had fought its final battle on the morning of October 5 1804. A little after 10 o’clock, their seven-month voyage from Peru, via Uruguay, to almost within sight of the Iberian peninsula came to an end with the British broadside that sent the treasure-laden frigate and 200 souls to the bottom of the Atlantic and brought Spain into the Napoleonic wars.

But after lying undisturbed on the seabed off Portugal for more than two centuries, the Mercedes is now at the centre of the biggest treasure grab in history.

The battle for ownership of its £254m cargo of gold and silver coins, which has already pitted a US treasure-hunting company against the Spanish government, has been joined by a third party. An emotive campaign is welling up from within Peru to reclaim the treasures the conquistadores and their descendants took by force over the course of almost three centuries.

Last May, the Florida-based Odyssey Marine Exploration announced that it had recovered 500,000 gold and silver coins weighing 17 tonnes from a wreck in international waters in the Atlantic and flown them back to the US from Gibraltar. Read the full Guardian Story

A treasure-hunter could be in line for a small fortune after unearthing two rare coins that shed light on a little-known rebel Roman emperor.

Derrick Fretwell’s finds, which date back to AD286 and the reign of Carausius, have been hailed “priceless” by experts at the British Museum. Mr Fretwell, 57, was digging in a field near Ashbourne, Derbys, when he uncovered the coins, which are at least 90 per cent gold.

The machinery sales manager said yesterday: “I’ll be intrigued to find out what they are worth, although to me their worth is their rarity value.”

The discovery of these two gold coins sheds light on a little known ‘British’ Emperor.

Gold coins of Carausius are extremely rare, until now only 23 being in existence. The last example found was in 1975 in Hampshire and it is quite possible that we will have to wait for over 30 years before another one sees the light of day. (more…)