Planes laden with shipwreck treasure land in Spain
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Feb. 24, 2012: Officials from the government of Spain load two Spanish military C-130 aircraft with 17 tons of silver and other artifacts at MacDill Air Force Base for a flight bound for Spain.
MADRID -- Two military planes laden with 17 tons of silver and gold coins scooped up from a Spanish warship that sank during a 1804 gunbattle are back in Spain, ending a 200-year odyssey that took the treasure from an ocean floor to Florida courtrooms.
The planes landed Saturday with the 594,000 coins and other artifacts retrieved after a five-year legal wrangle with the Florida-based salvage company Odyssey Marine Exploration, which had taken the haul to the U.S. in May 2007.
The deep-sea explorers found the treasure in a shipwreck, believed to be Nuestra Senora de las Mercedes, off Portugal's Atlantic coast. British warships had sunk it as it approached Spain from South America.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The coins are estimated at up to $500 million, making the haul one of the richest ever.