The San José Just Yielded Its First Treasure, With $17 Billion Still Underwater

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Popular Mechanics
The Holy Grail of Shipwrecks Just Yielded Its First Treasure, With $17 Billion Still Under the Sea
Tim Newcomb
Mon, December 8, 2025 at 8:30 AM EST
3 min read



An Infamous Shipwreck Revealed Its First Treasure joecicak - Getty Images


Here’s what you’ll learn when you read this story:

*Experts brought to the surface the first treasures from the 1700s Spanish galleon the San José.

*Considered the Holy Grail of shipwrecks, the Colombian government is planning to preserve these first finds.

*Included in the haul is a cannon, two porcelain cups, and three gold and bronze coins.


The hauling up of the world’s most valuable shipwreck has to start somewhere. So crews have brought to the surface three small gold and bronze coins from the 1700s, pulled from the Spanish galleon the San José, considered the Holy Grail of all shipwrecks. But there’s plenty more still sitting 1,970 feet below the ocean’s surface off the coast of Colombia, as much as $17 billion worth.

The San José, sunk by the British Royal Navy in the Caribbean during the War of Spanish Succession in 1708, was full of value. The ship was laden with 10 years’ worth of gold, silver, and gems, tribute from Spanish colonies in Latin America headed back to the Spanish king. Experts have now pulled up the first pieces from the ship, including coins, a cannon, and porcelain cups.

An English cannon sent the ship—part of the Flota de Tierra Firme fleet that left Peru in 1707—to the ocean’s floor. where it laid dormant for hundreds of years. The Colombian government claims it found the ship in 2015. Current estimates of the on-board value have ranged from $10 billion to $17 billion in today’s currency, sparking a custody battle between the Spanish and Colombian government over who has the rights to the loot.

A recent study confirmed the presence of macuquinas coins—knowns as cobs in English—strewn across the wreck site around the San José. The Colombian Ministry of Culture, Arts, and Knowledge has taken the next steps to recover the treasure, using a robotic underwater vehicle to secure samples of the cargo.

The team used the equipment to search the structure of the vessel without disturbing the galleon, picking three coins, a bronze cannon (as well as fragments of wood, rope, and sediment from the cannon) and two porcelain cups—each with a different style. The team took the items to the Center for Archaeological and Historical Research and the National Museum of Colombia for preservation.

Alhena Caicedo Fernandez, director of the Colombian Institute of Anthropology and History said in a translated statement that collecting the objects “opens the possibility that citizen can approach, through material testimony, the history of the San José galleon.”

An estimated 200 tons of gold, silver, and uncut gemstones were aboard the ship, the result of 10 years of taxation saved up before the fleet’s planed voyage back to Spain. The macuquinas were the main currency in the Americas during the time, typically cut from gold or silver ingots, and were the primary way the Spanish transported large volumes of wealth from the Americas to Europe. These coin hoards likely formed part of the royal treasure dispatched from Peru. But when the fleet of 18 ships left Cartagena bound for Spain on June 8, 1708, it was attacked by five British warships. The cannon battle resulted in the explosion of the San José’s gunpowder stores, sinking the 150-foot-long ship.

The shipwreck—and treasured cargo—has sat on the ocean floor ever since. Now, bit by bit, it may reach the surface once more.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/35-absolutely-fascinating-rare-historical-165155782.html