In an epic archeological discovery, a team has verified that the legendary Spanish galleon San Jose is the long-proclaimed richest shipwreck in the world. This is revealed following the finding of hand-struck gold coins on the ocean floor off Cartagena, Colombia, which provided irrefutable proof of the origins of the wreck.
The San Jose was attacked by British warships and sank in 1708. A fierce explosion of its gunpowder magazines hurled the ship, which was carrying as much as 200 tons of gold, silver, and jewels, to the bottom of the sea. Valued at approximately $17 billion, the treasure was initially bound from Spain to South America.
The galleon belonged to the Flota de Tierra Firme, a Spanish fleet that had a monopoly on the transportation of royal treasure between the Americas and the Iberian Peninsula. Daniela Vargas Ariza, lead researcher from Colombia’s Escuela Naval and ICANH, emphasized the fleet’s strategic importance, with San José as its flagship.
The wreck was found in 2015 almost 1,970 feet (600 meters) underwater. In 2021 and 2022, four voyages by the navy of Colombia used remotely operated vehicles that not only located gold coins but also cannons, cargo items, and other objects of daily use of those times.
Photogrammetry digitally scanned the coins, enabling specialists to recreate them in 3D and discern details of minting. They were marked in a way that connected them to Lima, Peru, in 1707, only a year before the San Jose sank, positively identifying the shipwreck.
Amid the euphoria, the find has caused a legal row. Colombia wants the treasure back as a part of national heritage and to put it on display in a museum, but Spain claims the treasure as their own, using maritime laws that safeguard naval wrecks.
With the arguments raging on, the San Jose rests in its watery grave, a submerged strongroom of colonial history—its gold pieces silent witnesses to one of the most remarkable wrecks that was ever found.
