A California man offers a chance for people to buy a piece of the richest Spanish treasure ship ever found. Jack Magne of Oakhurst, Calif., has fashioned silver ingots found in the wreck of the Nuestra Senora de Atocha into jewelry. The Atocha was found by treasure hunter Mel Fisher in 1985. The ship sank during a hurricane in 1622.
Magne’s jewelry will be on display and for sale at JCPenney stores in South Florida for the next few days. It will be at Penney’s at the Broward Mall today and at the Pompano Square mall in Pompano Beach on Friday.
The display will be at both locations from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. It will be at the Boynton Beach Mall store on Sunday from noon to 5 p.m. Magne started buying the ingots, which range in weight from 65 to 90 pounds, in 1988.
“I had a feeling that lots of people would want a piece of the treasure,” Magne said. “The majority of people buying them had been wealthy investors who put them in their vaults, which is in effect burying them all over again.”
The jewelry is either inspired by the ship or taken from wax molds of actual jewelry found with the ship. Prices range from $30 to $160.
Fisher, contacted at his Key West office, said he understood Magne had bought ingots from some of his investors. Several people have melted them down to make jewelry or other collectibles from them, he said.
That way they can make $200,000 or $300,000 from a bar that probably cost them $50,000, he said.
