Mel Fisher’s salvors recovered five gold “escudo” coins last week. People at the Maritime Museum says they think the Santa Margarita motherlode is within reach, and could be worth as much - if not more - than the famed Atocha.

Capt. Greg Bounds and his crew found the coins, along with some gold rosary beads, working the Margarita site, which lies a couple miles north of the Atocha mainpile.

Pat Clyne, vice president of Mel Fisher Enterprises, said the company would not sell the coins for anything less than $50,000 each.

To put it in perspective, in 15 years since finding the Atocha motherlode, salvors have found only 120 gold coins. Five in one week is an amazing discovery. Everyone concerned said that they think it means they’re hot on the trail of another fantastic find.

“Gold coins were rich passengers’ pocket money,: said Capt. Gary Randolph, operations manager for the salvors. “Most gold bullion went to Spain, where it was minted into coins in the city of Seville. So this is real pirate booty.”

Randolph said divers used the three main tools of the salvaging trade to uncover the gold: Metal detectors, Mel Fisher-designed mailboxes (which blow clear water down from the surface) and airlifts, which work like underwear vacuum cleaners.”

“The airlifts are great,” Randolph said. “They suck sand and shoot it away from the divers. Heavy objects like gold fall quickly to the bottom and are easy to spot.”

So, how much is still down there? The answer is still a mystery, but anyone at the museum will say “A lot.”

Salvors have yet to recover all the treasure listed on the manifest:

165 silver bars 4 bronze cannons 80,000-plus silver coins 22 copper ingots

Clyne said the amount down there could far exceed the manifest.

“The Atocha rewrote everything we know about New World smuggling,” he said. “When people returned to Spain, they smuggled emeralds which were never on the manifest, and anything they could hide.”

Clyne said the treasure could be worth as much as $1 billion.

“If we found it this week, we would probably have to buy a building and open another museum,” he said.” When the Atocha was found, Key West was in the spotlight as the site of a major shipwreck. Finding the Santa Margarita isn’t as well known as the Atocha,” Clyne said. But the Margarita was a “Capitana” ship - next in command after the Atocha. A third ship, the Rosario, beached on the Dry Tortugas in 1622, its treasure recovered and sent to Spain.

When divers will get on the radio and once again yell, “Throw away the charts,” is a matter of speculation. But ask Kim Fisher when that day will be and the response is always guaranteed: “Today’s the day.”