Spanish Treasure Sails Into Bellevue -- Couple Selling Booty From 17Th-Century Galleon That Sank Off The Florida Keys

BELLEVUE - The toughest part about finding a sunken Spanish treasure worth millions of dollars isn't the years spent looking for it, or even the further years spent fighting federal and state governments over who owns the treasure.

No, said Jim Sinclair - who is in Bellevue this week with some of the $400 million treasure he helped find - the tough part comes when the IRS shows up at your door, says they heard about your good fortune and asks: How do you want to pay your taxes - check or cash?

"You can't pay the bill with part of the treasure," Sinclair said. And you can't take those gold pieces of eight to the local bank for cash. Instead, you start selling off your find.

That's one reason why Sinclair and his wife, Lisa, and two other people involved in the recovery of the Spanish galleon Nuestra Senora de Atocha are selling pieces of their share of the treasure from the ship, which was shipwrecked off the Florida Keys in 1622. They are also selling the gold and silver, of course, to make money.

The sale is at Bevan Jewelers in Bellevue Square between now and Saturday. People can buy a piece of the treasure for as little as $39 for a small silver coin up to $100,000 for a gold brooch with jewels. Many of the people on the ship carried their wealth in gold chains and jewelry because it wasn't taxed, according to Sinclair.

But along with the items for sale there are also several displays filled with everyday atticles from the sunken galleon. Those contents, along with its gold and jewels, provide a glimpse into the life of a 17th century Spaniard.

Sinclair said the story of the Atocha is not just about one of the richest treasures in the world but also about a great adventure.

He became involved almost 12 years ago when he heard noted treasure hunter Mel Fisher talk about looking for the Atocha, which was believed to have been lost off the Florida Keys on Sept. 6, 1622, during a hurricane while en route to Cadiz, Spain, laden with the wealth of mines in Peru and Mexico. The Spanish ship went down with 260 of its 265 crew and passengers, carrying with it 47 tons of silver, almost 150,000 gold and silver coins, and pieces of jewelry and ropes of gold chains brought along by its wealthy passengers.

Sinclair was fascinated by the story when he heard Fisher tell it, but he was still a college student. When he graduated with a degree in archaeology, Sinclair went looking for Fisher to join the search. Fisher told him he didn't have any money to pay him so he couldn't use him. "I sat on his front porch until he took me in," Sinclair said.

"I also told him I was an underwater archaeologist," Sinclair said, although, he added, "I didn't know how to dive at the time."

That oversight was soon corrected and, on July 20, 1985, the treasure hunters hit pay dirt after they had traced the final voyage of the Atocha from where it was supposed to have gone down to where it actually sank, then followed a seven-mile trail of cannonballs, cannons and pieces of jewelry until coming to a mound of gold and silver.

Curtis White, a diver who was thereand who now travels with the Sinclairs, said the diver who made the discovery "came flying out of the water like a dolphin" with the news. "We didn't believe him at first," White said. "Not until we went down and saw for ourselves."

As a keepsake, Jim Sinclair had the first gold coin he picked off the ocean floor made into a ring. He also wears a silver coin as a tie clasp. Some coins have been made into necklaces and others into pins.

People are buying the coins as souvenirs and as an investment, Sinclair said, although he makes sure to tell people he doesn't know if the coins will continue to increase in value.