Posted on 05/18/2007 7:23:38 AM PDT by Red Badger
TAMPA, Florida (AP) -- Deep-sea explorers said Friday they have mined what could be the richest shipwreck treasure in history, bringing home 17 tons of colonial-era silver and gold coins from an undisclosed site in the Atlantic Ocean.
Estimated value: $500 million.
A jet chartered by Tampa-based Odyssey Marine Exploration landed in the United States recently with hundreds of plastic containers brimming with coins raised from the ocean floor, Odyssey co-chairman Greg Stemm said. The more than 500,000 pieces are expected to fetch an average of $1,000 each from collectors and investors.
"For this colonial era, I think (the find) is unprecedented," said rare coin expert Nick Bruyer, who examined a batch of coins from the wreck. "I don't know of anything equal or comparable to it."
Citing security concerns, the company declined to release any details about the ship or the wreck site Friday. Stemm said a formal announcement will come later, but court records indicate the coins might come from a 400-year-old ship found off England.
Because the shipwreck was found in a lane where many colonial-era vessels went down, there is still some uncertainty about its nationality, size and age, Stemm said, although evidence points to a specific known shipwreck. The site is beyond the territorial waters or legal jurisdiction of any country, he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
Wow that is pretty awesome.
Remarkable, isn’t it?
They have to be careful what they say. Once you find a treasure, everyone else, from the local state, to the feds, to the UN, to foreign countries, will be demanding a piece of it (or more).
So you risk your neck, and your cash, and do the work, only in order to be required to hand it all over to some government agency, or else go to jail.
The result of this is that nobody will tell where they found anything or just exactly which ship it came from—and so history is the loser.
From now on they will sit in their treasure room, startled by every sound, gradually turning into long-tooth, big-eyed rats saying ‘gollum’ to each other.
I had a dollar that was worth a dollar once.
Kind of reminds me of the warehouse scene at the end of “Raider of the Lost Ark.”
Bad news day for people who already own prime speciments of those coins, the value of their investment is going to go down, down, down.
Probably HMS Sussex, 80 guns 2d rate ship of the line, lost in 1694.
From http://www.treasurelore.com/florida/treasure_news3.htm
The American ship, belonging to the Florida-based Odyssey Marine exploration company, has been scanning the sea bed off Gibraltar for almost a decade. The 400 square miles of Mediterranean sea bed have turned up what appear to be dozens of ancient and modern wrecks, including some believed to date back 2,000 years to Phoenician and Roman times. But one wreck in particular, lying some 2,500ft (760 metres) down and with the cannons still clearly visible to robot cameras despatched by the company, is thought most likely to be the HMS Sussex. The 80-gun warship, supposedly laden with gold and silver, had been on a secret mission to ensure the support of the Duke of Savoy in the war of the League of Augsburg against Louis XIV of France.
Admiral Sir Francis Wheeler, with HMS Sussex as his flagship, had led a fleet of some 80 vessels to the mouth of the Mediterranean at Gibraltar. “Historical records suggest a million pounds sterling was destined for Savoy,” Odyssey Marine says. “Other court records show that just as Wheeler’s fleet was assembling to sail for the Mediterranean, a million pounds was being collected at the exchequer ... and that an order was sent to the exchequer to issue ‘a million pounds in money for the use of the fleet’.”
In mid-February 1694, after a stop-off in Gibraltar, the Sussex found itself caught in a terrible storm. Admiral Wheeler eventually agreed to cut down the main mast to increase its stability. But, according to the two Muslim sailors who were the only survivors from the crew, the mast smashed to pieces while the vessel drifted, took on water and, eventually, plunged to the bottom of the ocean. Some 560 Sussex crew members were among the 1,253 sailors to die that night. Admiral Wheeler’s body, dressed in his night-shirt, was discovered later by Spanish fishermen.
The HMS Sussex has long been a treasure hunter’s dream. Odyssey Marine, which recovered more than $75m (£38m) of gold and silver coins from the wreck of the SS Republic off Georgia in 2003, began its hunt for the Sussex in 1997. In what was hailed as a ground-breaking agreement between a government and a treasure-hunting company, the UK has signed a deal with Odyssey Marine Exploration to allow it to seek out the Sussex.
Under the terms of the deal, any treasure discovered will be divided between the government and the company. The Spanish government initially tried to block the search, but Spain now agrees that - if it can be proved that this is the Sussex - the cargo belongs to Britain.
Yup.
“Citing security concerns, the company declined to release any details about the ship or the wreck site Friday.”
Security concerns, ha ha. How bout taxman concerns he he.
In a few years, after the high quality coins have been removed for collectors, the junk coins, destined to be melted down into bullion, will be bought by some enterprising group and offered through magazine advertisements for sale at higher than junk coin prices to unsuspecting people as “Own a piece of pirate treasure”.
Al-Queerda operatives, no doubt........
Must have been from The Howells on “The Minnow”
centurion316: The 400 square miles of Mediterranean sea bed have turned up what appear to be dozens of ancient and modern wrecks, including some believed to date back 2,000 years to Phoenician and Roman times.To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list. Thanks.
Please FREEPMAIL me if you want on or off the
"Gods, Graves, Glyphs" PING list or GGG weekly digest
-- Archaeology/Anthropology/Ancient Cultures/Artifacts/Antiquities, etc.
Gods, Graves, Glyphs (alpha order)
Wow. Somebody got a booty call.
HYSTERICAL!!!
Fair winds, a following sea, and never a lee shore. Unfortunately this prayer was not always answered for those in peril on the sea.
Fair winds, a following sea, and never a lee shore. Unfortunately this prayer was not always answered for those in peril on the sea.
Wow !!!!!!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.