These gold currencies have not shine in more than 300 years. At 600 meters below, sunlight never reaches the bottom of the sea. Here, in the cold black stillness off the coast of Colombia, history persists in silence. But a robotic vehicle, guided by the human eyes of the surface, moves on the remains. After so long from the greedy view of humans, this forgotten gold shone under the light of the submersibles remotely operated, this time shining like clues. The clues that have now confirmed a story that sounds like something outside an adventure novel: from a Spanish galleon, a violent explosion and a treasure swallowed by the sea.
This is the San José.
In his new study, a team of archaeologists, historians and naval officers rebuilt the identity of a ship considered the richest accident in the world.
Loaded with gold, silver and precious stones with a value of up to $ 17 billion today, the disappearance of San José has captivated treasures hunters, historians and governments equally. But more than a history of lost wealth, the discovery offers a rare archaeological window in the vast maritime commercial network of the Spanish empire, and in the economic engine that helped shape the modern world.
An empire ship
San José was not an ordinary ship. In 1708, it was the flagship of the ground fleet, the Spanish crown monopoly transport system that joins the viceroyalty of Peru with Europe. He carried real assets and treasures gathered from all over South America, channeled to the Caribbean through the port of Portobello, Panama. From there, his convoy, 18 ships in total, sailed to Cartagena and finally to Spain.
But they never reached their destination. On June 8, during the Spanish succession war, the fleet was ambushed by five British warships. The San José returned the fire, but a sudden explosion in its dust magazine divided the galleon into two. He sank with the majority of his 600 crew, and with almost 200 tons of treasures in his grip.
For more than 300 years, the fate of the ship remained a mystery. Then, in 2015, the Colombian government announced He had found the shipwreck off the coast near Cartagena. What followed was a series of non -intrusive research led by researchers from the Navy and Cultural Heritage Institutes of Colombia.
Using a Lynx Saab Seaeye vehicle operated remotely, the team conducted four deep water surveys in 2021 and 2022. They documented the distribution of artifacts: cannons, porcelain, personal items, and the most intriguing, dozens of gold coins.
Coined in Lima, buried in the sea
These currencies would prove to be key to identifying San José.
The researchers used high resolution and photogrammetry photography to create three -dimensional reconstructions of the cobs: irregular hand coins known in Spanish as Macuquinas. These were the standard currency of the Spanish colonies for more than 200 years.
The annios sides wore a Jerusalem cross surrounded by castles and lions, the heraldic emblems of Castilla y León. The reverse showed the “crowned pillars of Hercules on the waves of the sea”, flanked by letters that mark their origin.
Among the most revealing clues: an “L” for Lima, the location of the mint; a “8” that indicates its denomination in Shields; and an “H” that identifies Francisco de Hurtado, the main essay in the mint Lima in 1707. “A currency”, the authors point out: “shows a small pellet next to ‘8’, which is a mark of distinction of the cobs of this essay.”
The presence of these symbols, together with the date of the Mint of 1707, provides “a temporary frame,” said the main author Daniela Vargas Ariza, a maritime archaeologist of the Colombian Navy and the country’s Institute of Anthropology and History. This means that the ship must have sunk after that year.
This accurate dating, combined with the known destination of San José and the historical load manifestos of the Firm Tierra Fleet, offers strong evidence that the accident is in fact the legendary galleon.
A flash of history in the deep
The study also connects the coins with a wider historical moment. After years of delays that were enroncied in Spain, the viceroyalty of Peru was anxious to send taxes and the wealth accumulated for a decade. In 1706, the new viceroy, Marqués de Castellosrius, arrived in Lima to revive the Portobello Fair and push the backward treasure east.
Gold probably originated in mines in Puno and Huamanga, in what is now the southern Peru. Once cast and coined in Lima, the coins were transported by the Pacific to Panama, then led Portobello. There, they were loaded aboard the San José for shipping to Europe. But the story had other plans.
“This case study highlights the value of currencies as key chronological markers in the identification of shipwrecks,” said Vargas Ariza. The analysis not only confirms the identity of the ship, but also provides rare ideas about how the colonial economy of Spain worked in the peak of its imperial reach.
Who possesses the treasure now?
Identification can close a historical chapter, but opens another, one full of legal and diplomatic tension.
Spain states that, under international maritime law, the accident remains its property as a Spanish naval ship. The United States Rescue Company, Sea Search Armada, which claims to have first located the shipwreck in the early 1980s, also establishes a partial claim of the Treasury. Meanwhile, Colombia affirms its sovereignty on the site and plans to build a museum to house recovered artifacts, although it has not ruled out the sale of the treasure to finance greater exploration.
However, for now, there are no plans to raise coins. “This is just the first step in a long -term project,” wrote Vargas Ariza and his colleagues. Its objective is to completely characterize the site before any recovery. This non -invasive approach, argue, allows a careful and multidisciplinary study to preserve the historical integrity of the site.
The findings appeared in the magazine Antique.
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