Posted 06/11/2008 06:28 am
I think Spain has some rights to the treasure, but I believe their "all or nothing" attitude is not helping their cause. And the "war grave" line is just an emotive legal ruse, designed to get Americans thinking about how they'd feel if someone looted the Arizona. if Spain wins, and doesn't dump all those coins back in the sea where they came from, they prove that they're really after the loot themselves, rather than concern over desecrated war graves.
On the other side, Odyssey's "we're still not sure it's Spanish" attitude is a bit precious, too. They knew or strongly suspected they had a Spanish wreck, and knew Spain's 'touchiness' in regard to looting their wrecks; that's why there was so much cloak-and-dagger secrecy about smuggling the haul out of Gibraltar.
Now, that's a bit radical. One could use a logically very similar argument to the one you just used against Spain to negate this point: that the Incas and Aztecs never bothered mining all that silver and if they wanted to keep it, they should have tried harder to stop the Spanish from conquering and plundering them. The Spanish put in all the effort into mining it, refining it and coining it, so they deserve to keep it.
Not arguments I necessarily agree with, I must add, but they could be made.
So why didn't Spain go after the wreck themselves? According to the Coinlink article:
Presumably the Spanish had always assumed that there wouldn't be enough left of it to find. Or, they tried to find it, but the wreck was so unrecognisable they didn't have the technology to search properly. Odyssey took the gamble that this was not the case, and have the latest in technological aids to help tip the odds in their favour. In this instance the gamble paid off.
As a collector, of course, I'm hoping that Odyssey wins, and wins convincingly, so the coins can find their way onto the collector market. Behind Spain's challenge is the "archaeologist mindset" that collectors are evil and all old things belong in public museums, not private collections. If Spain wins, the coins will most likely wind up in some government-owned, poorly funded naval museum, spending most if not all of their time locked away in a storeroom, inaccessible to anyone who doesn't have an archaeology degree.
On the other side, Odyssey's "we're still not sure it's Spanish" attitude is a bit precious, too. They knew or strongly suspected they had a Spanish wreck, and knew Spain's 'touchiness' in regard to looting their wrecks; that's why there was so much cloak-and-dagger secrecy about smuggling the haul out of Gibraltar.
Quote:
biokemist6 said:
Not to mention the fact that none of it really belonged to Spain in the first place- it was all plunder from South America!
biokemist6 said:
Not to mention the fact that none of it really belonged to Spain in the first place- it was all plunder from South America!
Now, that's a bit radical. One could use a logically very similar argument to the one you just used against Spain to negate this point: that the Incas and Aztecs never bothered mining all that silver and if they wanted to keep it, they should have tried harder to stop the Spanish from conquering and plundering them. The Spanish put in all the effort into mining it, refining it and coining it, so they deserve to keep it.
Not arguments I necessarily agree with, I must add, but they could be made.
So why didn't Spain go after the wreck themselves? According to the Coinlink article:
Quote:
from the Coinlink article
...the Mercedes exploded...
from the Coinlink article
...the Mercedes exploded...
Presumably the Spanish had always assumed that there wouldn't be enough left of it to find. Or, they tried to find it, but the wreck was so unrecognisable they didn't have the technology to search properly. Odyssey took the gamble that this was not the case, and have the latest in technological aids to help tip the odds in their favour. In this instance the gamble paid off.
As a collector, of course, I'm hoping that Odyssey wins, and wins convincingly, so the coins can find their way onto the collector market. Behind Spain's challenge is the "archaeologist mindset" that collectors are evil and all old things belong in public museums, not private collections. If Spain wins, the coins will most likely wind up in some government-owned, poorly funded naval museum, spending most if not all of their time locked away in a storeroom, inaccessible to anyone who doesn't have an archaeology degree.
Don't say "infinitely" when you mean "very"; otherwise, you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite. - C. S. Lewis
