The aim of this article is to reinterpret a well-known underwater archaeological site located at Las Amoladeras, in La Manga del Mar Menor, near Cabo de Palos. For this purpose, after a historiographical review, we have studied, contextualized and undertaken isotopic analyses of some of the most interesting material from this archaeological site, as well as a plomo monetiforme (coin-like lead token) of the same type as those recovered at Las Amoladeras and the ones that circulated in the Balearic Islands. The lead isotope analyses carried out on the afore-mentioned artefacts allow us to determine the source of the lead used in the first two objects as Cartagena-Mazarrón and the Sierra Morena respectively. However, the lead used in the manufacture of the plomo monetiforme seems to reflect a mixture of metals. Based on all the above, we interpret this site as the remains of a shipwreck dating from 50-30 bc that was carrying a cargo composed in part, if not almost exclusively, of metallic items, mostly lead objects, probably to be sold and recycled. Las Amoladeras can therefore be contextualized in a very specific historical and economic framework: that of the commercialization and reuse of the lead in late Republican Hispania.