Gold coins from ‘world’s richest shipwreck’ reveal 300-year-old depictions of castles, lions and Jerusalem crosses

New details of gold coins found off the coast of Colombia around the “world’s richest shipwreck” verify they are from the Spanish galleon San José, a treasure ship that sank in 1708 during a cannon duel with British warships.

The galleon was laden with up to 200 tons (180 metric tons) of gold, silver and uncut gemstones when it sank, and the treasure’s modern value may be as high as $17 billion, Live Science previously reported.

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Colombia’s government hopes to recover some of the artifacts for a dedicated museum that is yet to be built. But there are opposing claimants, including the Spanish government, which asserts the wrecks of its naval vessels, no matter how old, remain the property of Spain.

The authors of a new study, published Tuesday (June 10) in the journal Antiquity, include researchers from Colombia’s navy and other Colombian authorities. Their analysis included studying images taken by remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) of dozens of rough coins that now lie scattered around the wreck at a depth of roughly 1,970 feet (600 meters).

In 2015, Colombia’s government announced that it had located the San José in the Colombian Caribbean near the city of Cartagena, and the observations were made during four ROV expeditions to the wreck in 2021 and 2022.

According to the study, the observations confirm that the coins and the nearby wreck debris are from the 1708 wreck of the San José.