The KeyWest Citizen has a story about a recent find of 16,184 Pearls on the Santa Margarita Wreck...
When living in the Florida Keys I had the opportunity to work with the Mel Fisher team on both the Margarita and Atocha wrecks as a salvage diver and crewman. I was able to dive with the team several times when the Sportfishing season was slow and had several friends and divers who were permanent team members at the time...
The Magruder was the boat we worked on and were at the wrecksites for 5 to 7 days at a time.
I did recover numerous silver coins like the one above but when found they are encrusted in a black grit like substance from being in the saltwater for almost 400 years...
Nuestra Señora de Atocha
We also worked the Emerald field recovering emeralds that were lost on the Atocha wreck. I did have the opportunity to find a "Dark" emerald like the one above but only smaller...
"The investors will be happy this year," Randolph said, estimating the shipwreck value of the pearls to exceed $3 million.
The largest of the stash is 52 carats, making it one of the biggest pearls in the world, and worth nearly $500,000, he said.
Along with the box of pearls, divers on the Santa Margarita site also found several gold chains, bars and artifacts in the same area on the same day.
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