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A team of divers searching the waters off the Florida Keys recently recovered something that hadn’t been seen in nearly three decades: a 22-pound silver bar (1) from the legendary Atocha shipwreck.
The artifact, which spent more than 400 years underwater after the Spanish galleon sank in a hurricane in 1622, is estimated to be worth about $100,000.
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The Nuestra Señora de Atocha (2) was a heavily armed ship carrying an estimated $400 million to $500 million (3) in gold, silver and gemstones from the New World to Spain. Its wreckage was first discovered in 1985 by treasure hunter Mel Fisher (4) and his team, Treasure Salvors, Inc., following a 16-year search.
Hunters have not yet cleaned out the wreckage of its treasures.
“It was our last dive of the day — it was almost 7 o’clock,” lead diver Blake Baker recalled to Local 10 News. The new discovery was made by members of Mel Fisher’s Shipwreck Expeditions, the same organization that has spent decades recovering treasure from the wreck site.
According to Captain Drake Nicholas, the silver bar was found buried deeper than many of the other metal detector signals the team had investigated.
“We were in an area with a lot of metal detector hits,” Nicholas said. “This one was deeper.”
After striking the object with a knife and examining its surface, Nicholas said he noticed markings consistent with a silver bar.
He added, “I didn’t believe it at the moment.”
The artifact was covered in more than four centuries of marine encrustations and will be examined in a laboratory before its history is fully documented.
Sean Browne of Mel Fisher’s Shipwreck Expeditions estimated the silver bar’s value at roughly $100,000. Rather than being melted down, the piece will likely remain intact because of its historical significance.
Today, discoveries from the site are shared among investors involved in the expedition before being distributed to the Fisher family, according to Browne.
A treasure that has held its value for centuries
While few investors will ever uncover treasure from a centuries-old shipwreck, gold and silver have historically been viewed as stores of value, helping preserve wealth through wars, economic upheavals and changing currencies.
Source: finance.yahoo.com
