 of Savannah, they picked up a tantalizing image on sonar screen. Within a month, the team had positively identified the decomposing wreck by retrieving the ship's bell.
Experts estimated the current value of its lost coins at up to $150 million. Odyssey, a public company, hopes to make a profit mainly by selling coins and setting up shipwreck museums and exhibits.
Late last year, team members flew the tethered robot about 15 feet above the wreckage, taking more than 4,600 digital still photographs and turning them into a detailed photo mosaic.
''We can zoom in on domino stones and see the dots,'' Gerhard Seiffert, the team's data manager, said as he demonstrated the technique at a computer, zooming in on an old domino made of wood and ivory.
Rare coins have a high priority since their sale promises to repay the recovery's high cost. But at first, the team had no idea how to gather them up carefully and expeditiously when even the slightest scratch could greatly reduce their value. Much testing ensued.
The tiny suction cups proved safe and efficient. More troublesome was finding the right holding devices for transporting coins to the surface, despite Mr. Stemm's extensive hunt for solutions. Plastic colanders and ice cube trays proved unworkable.