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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Sallent, post: 3625559, member: 76194&quot;]Although I live in Florida, and had been to Key West a dozen times, I had never been to the Mel Fisher museum, a private museum containing a tiny fraction of the treasure Mr. Fisher discovered in the mid-1980&#039;s. Basically,&nbsp; the exhibition is supposed to contain a portion of the treasure that didn&#039;t get paid out to his investors,&nbsp; or which Mr. Fisher himself didn&#039;t end up selling for profit, or turning into coin jewelry (thus destroying the numismatics value of the coins, or even melting down (yeah, they did that too).</p><p><br /></p><p>Here&#039;s a few photos of a portion of the numismatics and bullion content on display.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]972180[/ATTACH]</p><p>Stack of 1000+ ounce silver bars, and copper bars</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]972181[/ATTACH]</p><p>Some 4 and 8 reales coins</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]972182[/ATTACH]</p><p>Gold bullion bars&nbsp; and fragments of bars</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]972183[/ATTACH]</p><p>Some of the better Spanish coins from the treasure</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]972184[/ATTACH]</p><p>There&#039;s a huge wall with coins for the dozen or so moneyers that struck coins found aboard the Atocha</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]972185[/ATTACH]</p><p>A few more coins and bars</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]972186[/ATTACH]</p><p>My son and I touching a 1000+ ounce silver bar.</p><p><br /></p><p>Overall it really is a fun place to visit if you like early 17th century hammered Spanish coinage, and if you are fan of historical gold and silver bullion., However I&#039;d avoid the gift shop. I was not a huge fan of the two dozens of jewelry pieces made out of Spanish 4 and 8 reales coinage, or the two dozen modern jewelry pieces made out of molten coins and bars from the treasure. A reminder of how at the end of the day most of the stuff got destroyed so they could make a few bucks from people who don&#039;t generally care at all about coins. The only reason this portion of the treasure still exists is because they realized they could make a few bucks from charging people to see it.</p><p><br /></p><p>The few raw coins that they had for sale at the gift&nbsp; shop we&#039;re grosly overpriced. They were selling some coins for $1000 that would be generally worth $200, and some for $2000+ that would generally be available for $400 elsewhere. But if you&#039;re not there to shop, and you avoid the gift shop, and come just to see Spanish treasure... this is a fun place to spend a few hours with the family.</p><p><br /></p><p>Here&#039;s a few non-bullion and non-numismatics items to give you an idea of what else you can expect to find at the museum.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]972189[/ATTACH]</p><p>One of the many displays of gold chains and jewelry.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]972191[/ATTACH]</p><p>A gold vessel</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]972190[/ATTACH]</p><p>A cannon from the galeon.</p><p><br /></p><p>The museum is $20 per adult and $5 per child. It really is worth the price of admission. The photos I showed were but a small portion of all the coins, bars, jewelry, and artifacts on display. Really makes you start to quantifying in your head just how much gold and silver these Spanish treasure ships were packing. Shame the entire treasure is not on display, but I understand they have to make a few bucks peddling coins, turning coins into jewelry pieces, and had to pay off their investors with treasure.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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