The Republic of Peru on Tuesday entered the legal fray between Odyssey Marine Exploration and Spain over a 17-ton booty of Colonial-era silver and gold coins discovered at a shipwreck site Odyssey code-named the "Black Swan."

That legal dispute started back in May of 2007 after Odyssey — a Florida based treasure hunting, and deep-sea exploration firm — hauled up over 500,000 silver and gold coins from a 17th-century shipwreck site found on the Atlantic sea floor.

Spain contends the treasure is a part of their country’s cultural heritage and should be returned. Odyssey has said the treasure was found in international waters, and legally retrieved.

The legal battle over the treasure is now pending in U.S. District Court before Magistrate Judge Mark A. Pizzo in Tampa, Florida.

Although not proven, the coin treasure may have come from the Nuestra Senora de las Mercedes, a Spanish 34-gun frigate that left Peru and was close to home before it was sunk by the British fleet in 1804.

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The Association of Peruvian Consumers and Users (ASPEC) requested the Peru government to join the legal battle between Odyssey Marine Exploration and Spain over the sunken treasure trove of silver and gold coins discovered last year.

Ownership of the 17-ton treasure found by Odyssey in May of 2007 is worth several hundred million, and has been hotly contested.

With the possibility the treasure came from the Mercedes, a Spanish 34-gun frigate that left Peru and was close to home before it was sunk by the British fleet in 1804, ASPEC believes the coins were made with Peruvian metals and minted in Lima.

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