Galleon’s Treasure Put at $400 Million
MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay — Salvage workers have recovered dozens of coins and a solid gold ingot weighing nearly 4.4 pounds from a sunken Spanish galleon that may hold $400 million in gold and silver, officials said Monday.
The announcement comes two years after cannon balls from the ship El Preciado were discovered in shallow water off Uruguay.
The ship was sunk by pirates in 1792 as it returned from Chile to Spain, with stops in Argentina and Uruguay.
The wreck was found last month by a team led by Argentine oceanographer Ruben Collado.
Researchers say the ship was carrying 47 tons of gold and 147 tons of silver, virtually all in coins.
The cargo of the El Preciado is considered the fifth most-valuable sunken treasure in the world by the National Geographic Society, Collado said.
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