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Mel Fisher's Treasures is the world leader in historic shipwreck recovery and the source for authentic shipwreck treasure! Mel Fisher was a dreamer, a visionary, a legend and most importantly, the World's Greatest Treasure Hunter. We carry on Mel's dream of sharing with the public the priceless historical and cultural heritage that these treasures represent. We continue to actively search for and recover the remaining lost treasures of the Atocha and the Santa Margarita while also searching for other yet to be discovered shipwrecks.

Each precious piece of history we recover goes through an extensive conservation process in our state of the art conservation lab. It then goes on to be studied and then recorded in our comprehensive data base. Our team of researchers, conservationists, archeologists, boat captain and crews have a blazing passion to locate and bring forth historic shipwreck treasures to the world.
Mel Fisher's Treasures

Mel Fisher endured a lot of hardship during his quest, including losing a son from a boating mishap during the salvage operations as well as fighting a multi-year legal battle with the State of Florida over the state’s claim to 25% ownership of the treasure. Fisher eventually won the law suit.

At the Mel Fisher museum in Key West they had a gold bar from the wreck trapped inside a plexiglass case so you could lift it to feel its heft but couldn't get it out.

In 2010 some yabbo stole it. By the time they caught him (8 years later), he had sawed it into small pieces and sold it off as he needed gas money.

It was known as "gold bar #27" and there were no casting marks or assayer's stamps on it, which gave them to believe it was "off the books" and being smuggled.

The press reported it weighed 74.85 ounce but nothing I've seen mentioned whether that weight was in ounces Avoirdupois or ounces Troy, which makes a difference because a Troy ounce (traditionally used for weighing precious metals) is heavier by a little more than 9%. IIRC, it was 16.5 karat and spot today is $4000 and change so -- if it was 75 Troy ounces of 16.5k -- today the gold would be worth $200,000 and change. Ounces Avdp would be more like $188,000.

It's value was a sticking point at the trial of the thief because the museum people wanted to lump in a about $300,000 on top of the value of the gold itself for its artistry and historicity. Insurance only paid a little over $100,000.

Anyhow, AFAIK, the museum never replaced it in the exhibit.

Actually, Mel himself said that he never found the bulk of the treasure. His surviving son continued the search after Mel’s death, and even though he found hundreds of millions more treasure, if memory serves, he also said he still hadn’t found the the main hold of the ship.

I was lucky enough to be in Key West in 1987, and was able to go thru the “museum” where some of the treasure was stored while what they had was being divyed up for the shareholders. Stacks of silver bars were piled all over the place. Many glass cases were filled with gold, jewels and jewel encrusted gold objects.

Lots of armed guards, of course.