Creating treasures from the deep

What do you do with ingots of silver and copper that date back to 1622, and were discovered by treasure hunters at the bottom of the ocean 360 years later?

If you are Jack Mangé, you get some of that treasure from the deep and start making beautiful jewelry.

That is what Mangé has been doing since 1989, when he approached famous treasure hunter Mel Fisher with the jewelry idea. Ever since then the former marketing specialist turned jeweler has been doing, traveling around the country selling under his company’s name Treasure Sails Inc. the Ghost Galleon collection.

A New Orleans native and former resident of Covington, Mangé has returned home with the collection.

In 1622, the Spanish Galleon Atocha set sail from Cuba laden with a cargo of sliver and copper worth millions of dollars. The Atocha disappeared at sea around Florida.

Almost 400 years later, treasure hunter Mel Fisher spent 19 years tracing down the Ghost Galleon and found it in 1985. After paying off his investors, Fisher decided to auction off some of the treasure in Las Vegas in 1988. Mangé was at the auction and saw the huge pile of silver and copper ingots and decided that jewelry would be a good way to use the treasure.

He approached Fisher, who told him to come to his home in Key West, Fla. When Mangé arrived, Fisher had forgotten about the conversation, so Mangé sent in a poem, via Fisher’s secretary, that he had written about the Atocha. Fisher was impressed with the poetry, called in Mangé, who walked out of Fisher’s office that day with an ingot of silver. That was the start of Treasure Sails.

Since then, Mangé has bought five copper ingots and six silver ingots out of the 582 copper ingots and 1,000 silver ingots found by Fisher. Mangé found out that the copper had 1/2 to 1 percent gold in them. He found a foundry that would melt the copper and then skim off the gold and impurities such as sand.

He has made pendants, rings, necklaces, crucifixes, and fleur-des-lis out of the two metals. He turned some copper into coins, then got a mold of the official seal of the Spanish monarchy and put them on the copper. Then he puts silver framing around the coin and sells them as earrings and pendants.

He said that some archaeologists are angry with him for what he has done, but he sees his work as a way to bring these wonderful treasures to everybody.

“Collectors and archaeologists would put these away in museums and safe deposit boxes,” Mangé said. “I had the opportunity to bring the treasure to everybody at a reasonable price. Treasure never goes out of style.”

Starting today, Mangé will have three shows in Slidell. Today he will set up his treasures from the deep from 2–6:30 p.m. at Dubisson Gallery, 300 Robert St. in Olde Towne Slidell. Tomorrow, the treasures will be on display and on sale from 11 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. at the Coral Reef Dive Shop, 1501 Gause Blvd. Finally, the Tammany Yacht Club, 1196 Harbor Drive will put the jewelry on display from 2 – 6:30 p.m.

Mangé said each jewelry piece comes with a certificate of authentication, plus a copy of his Atocha poem, which he will be happy to autograph.