silver discovered and salvaged by Odyssey Marine Exploration

[reddirtcoins]

Just makes you sick...

http://goldsilver.com/news/banking-cart ... ver-heist/

[SilverEye]

I wonder how many salvage recovery operations happen in secret that no one ever hears about. For $500 million, I would certainly be tempted to high-tail it to a country with no extradition / property seizure treaty with Spain. I hear there are some very nice ones in tropical climates with understanding authorities and plenty of defensible private villas for sale.

[Neckro]

And the salvage company has to foot the bill.

[Z00]

What happened to maritime law salvage rights?

[reddirtcoins]

exactly... this is 100% not right.

[Z00]

Of course I can't prove it, but I'll bet some of those "buckets" never made it into the inventory.

[mbailey1234]

I believe I would have been like sorry, I'll take them back. Then I would have sailed back to the area of the sunken ship and dumped them on the sea floor before I would have let them have them!

Would it be to much for them to at least pay the 2.6 million out of the 500??

0.52% recovery fee doesn't seem to far out of line to me.

[agmoose]

not right at all............and I could see it from my office window today before it left for Spain.............tsk tsk.

[jtlee321]

Don't those salvagers know not to transport that treasure by air? I would have tried to bring it back to Florida in a ship. But then that ship may have accidentally sank along the way..

[John_doe]

ouch. bet they dont make the mistake of telling about it next time. not even a finders fee.

[beauanderos]

Don't those salvagers know not to transport that treasure by air? I would have tried to bring it back to Florida in a ship. But then that ship may have accidentally sank along the way..

hope they try to fly thru the Bermuda Triangle on the way back home. Three hundred year old revenge piracy.

[SilverEye]

This has been gnawing at me all weekend.

A) How fricken short sighted and greedy of Spain. Spaniards should be ashamed of the incompetence their gov't. Imagine the recovery efforts that would be undertaken if Spain threw open its offer to the world and said Give us the actual treasure and we will pay you 50% of the market value. Or 25% or 10% or whatever. With a guarantee from a sovereign nation of so much riches, there could have been so very many priceless artifacts recovered from the depths. And now the only incentive is to steal it away in the night lest Spain theft it themselves through the courts. Sad.

B) Check my math. Article says "17 tonne" were recovered, which doesn't specify metric tons or troy tons or whatever that is, or if that includes other artifacts. But what the heck, punch into teh google "17 tonne in troy oz" and it spits out "17 tonne = 546 562.692 troy oz". If that's all silver bullion, at $35.50 / oz that's $19,402,975.60 in melt. Which puts their $500 million figure at a premium of about 25 times over spot. Or $887 for a 1 oz shipwreck silver coin. I would not pay that premium myself. Is that market for shipwreck silver?

[fansubs_ca]

I did think it would be ironic if Spain's planes went down over the ocean and it wasn't found
again for annother 200 years. I held off saying that for a few days just incase it did
happen, wouldn't want to draw attention in that event. ^_-

Of course next time someone finds it they'll know to keep quiet about it.

[1945v]

I think one of the most progressive nations in turns of salvage rights is England with their "Treasure Act"

Any historical finds (typically metal detector finds) in the UK must be reported within 14 days, examined by a coroner and if deemed to be a treasure then sold to a museum for fair market price determined by an independent board of antiquities experts. If no museum shows an interest in the item, the treasure finder can keep his find.

http://detecting.org.uk/html/Metal_Dete ... e_Act.html

[Tourney64]

I believe the finder does get compensated in the UK.

[Cu Lung]

I believe I would have been like sorry, I'll take them back. Then I would have sailed back to the area of the sunken ship and dumped them on the sea floor before I would have let them have them!

Would it be to much for them to at least pay the 2.6 million out of the 500??

0.52% recovery fee doesn't seem to far out of line to me.

I am sure those Deep sea recovery experts got paid aka taking a big slice of undisclosed findings. You have to believe when that gold is coming up they're in the know of government treaties, this ain't their first rodeo.

[1945v]

I believe the finder does get compensated in the UK.

You are correct. The finder gets fair market value price from the museum who buys the find or keeps the find.

A recent Anglo-Saxon treasure find brought 2 million dollars to the finder.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/sep/2 ... l-detector

[SilverEye]

I believe the finder does get compensated in the UK.

You are correct. The finder gets fair market value price from the museum who buys the find or keeps the find.

A recent Anglo-Saxon treasure find brought 2 million dollars to the finder.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/sep/2 ... l-detector

And the British people are so much the better for having these antiquities held in a museum for all to enjoy. A rich part of their heritage is being preserved with a clear conscience for fair value paid.