It sounds like someone was playing with words
'Atocha emeralds' has almost become a label, when the treasure recuperated from the wreck of a Spanish galion of that name (and a couple others) gave new meaning to the rarefied legend of 'old mine' emeralds, but no remarkable pearls came through then and those in the FlEaBay picture have absolutely NO chance of being associated with the said historic site and source.
What makes Atocha items a rare case is that the hoard was catalogued and sales documented, so that items are tractable and keep changing hands with the historic value attached. The best reference that comes to mind about them is a catalog:
'Gold and Silver of the Atocha and Santa Margarita', June 14 and 15, 1988, Christies New York. and
Mel Fisher's website, of course. There were other documented finds, the latest in 1997 (check?) - a 1715 Spanish vessel called the 'Anchor'.
The pearls included in the hoard had been though allot... and even to begin with they weren't nucleated rounds for Pete's sake!
