In a final twist to a five-year legal drama, the Peruvian government today appealed to the US Supreme Court to prevent the return to Spain of mountains of salvaged 19th-century lucre that are sitting in a US air base in Florida, according to The Associated Press.

Spanish military cargo planes had been due tomorrow to fly out of MacDill Air Force Base with 17 tons of treasure, including 594,000 coins, after a federal court last week ordered the Florida shipwreck diving company Odyssey Marine Exploration to hand it over.