MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Potosi to claim treasure sunk off Florida in 1622

The Bolivian district of Potosi with the legendary Cerro Rico, the greatest silver deposit in the time of the Spanish conquest announced it was preparing an international demand to recover a sunken treasure which was lost in 1622 but was found three centuries later in 1985 along the coat of Florida, United States.

According to the local press Rene Joaquina mayor of Potosi signed a contract with a United States law office to recover the several tons treasure of silver and coins minted in the Potosi Minting House and which where en route to Spain aboard the "Nuestra Señora de Atocha" which sunk in the middle of a storm in 1622.

The current value of the several tons of precious metals is estimated in three billion US dollars and was recovered in 1985 by the US company Mel Fisher Maritime Heritage Society Museum.

"The value of the treasure is three billion US dollars but the cultural heritage value is priceless", said Ricardo Gonzalez, spokesperson for the government of Potosi who insisted once the treasure is recovered it will be exposed in Bolivia's museum belonging to the National Minting Office.

This is the first time Potosi has initiated such a demand to recover the treasure that left the heart of Bolivia for Spain originally from the Cerro Rico, exploited in the time of the colony and destined to pay the Spanish Court's bills.

The Spanish galleon with the treasure sunk on entering the Florida Strait when a fast moving hurricane surprised the heavily armed flotilla. It was recovered by the Mel Fisher company following fifteen years of surveying hundreds of miles in the area.

"Nuestra Señora de Atocha" according to the description in The Archives of the Indies in Seville, was carrying 24 tons of silver made up of 1.308 ingots; 180.000 coins; 582 ingots of copper; 125 gold rods and disks; 350 coffers of indigo; 525 bails of tobacco; 20 bronze canons and 1.200 lbs or finely worked silversmith, reports the local press.