SHIP TREASURE NOW WEARABLE WORKS OF ART

It was buried at sea for 363 years and was once part of a ship captain's treasure. Now, six years after it was recovered from the ocean's depths off the coast of Florida, silver from the Spanish ship Atocha is being sold as jewelry.

"It appeals to people who have a sense of imagination and a sense of wonder," said Jack Magne, the entrepreneur who purchased silver ingots from the Atocha and turned them into earrings, pendants, rings and bracelets.

"There is a real added dimension to these pieces of jewelry," Magne said. "They are made out of a treasure that was on the ocean floor for three and a half centuries."

Magne, of Oakhurst, Calif., is bringing his collection of jewelry to the JC Penney store at West Park Mall on Sunday from noon to 5 p.m. The pieces range in price from $30 to $150, but most pieces are under $100, Magne said.

The Atocha treasure was loaded onto the ship in 1622 at Portobello, Christopher Columbus' "Beautiful Harbor" off the coast of Panama.

In 1985, it was recovered off the coast of the Florida Keys by Mel Fischer, a treasure hunter. The treasure contained 47 tons of silver, 7,175 ounces of gold bars, silver coins from Central and South America and Cuban copper.

Magne purchased a silver bar from the treasure, valued at about $17,000, and decided to make jewelry. He's been selling the jewelry for about three years.

Each piece is engraved and comes with a certificate of authenticity, he said. The pieces are fashioned after markings found on the silver bar, he said.

"One of the pendants contains all the original markings to scale," he said.

One of the markings is a "tax bite," left from when a small portion of the bar was scooped out for tax purposes.

Magne said, because of the jewelry's rich history, it gives people a chance to wear more than a designer label or trinket.

"It's something people have fought over," he said. "It affected the lives of people more than three centuries ago."