Record treasure haul

A record haul of half a million silver and gold coins from a 17th Century shipwreck may have been found just 40 miles from Land's End, an expert said.

US treasure hunters said the coins, worth an estimated $500m (£253m), were recovered in the Atlantic Ocean. But Odyssey Marine Exploration, who described it as the largest find of its kind, refused to pinpoint the location.

US coin expert Dr Lane Brunner said there was evidence the shipwreck was lying off the Cornish coast. Dr Brunner, from the American Numismatic Association, told Five Live there were clues about the location in a statement given to a US federal court in the autumn.

"They told a judge at that point that they had found the wreck of a seventeenth-century merchant ship in the Atlantic Ocean, just outside the English Channel - about 40 miles off Lands' End. "So all we can do is add two and two together. It would seem logical given the timing and everything that could be the site."

In 1641, an English ship called the Merchant Royal sank off the Scilly Islands, laden with bullion from Mexico. There is speculation that this is the wreck salvaged by Odyssey.

Odyssey said it had kept the location secret because of security and legal reasons.
"The gold coins are almost all dazzling mint state specimens," Odyssey co-founder Greg Stemm said.