It sounds like a tale from a storybook but the sunken treasure found in the Atlantic Ocean Friday is real and worth $500 million.

Odyssey Marine Exploration deep-sea explorers found a shipwreck that yielded 17-tons of colonial-era gold and silver coins in an undisclosed area in the ocean. They brought the booty to the surface in plastic containers to be analyzed.

Rare Coin Expert Nick Bruyer who was brought in to inspect the coins told the Associated Press, "For this colonial era, I think (the find) is unprecedented. I don't know of anything equal or comparable to it."

Even Bruyer was unsure of the coins nationality and age. But records indicate the treasure may have come from a 400-year-old English ship. Odyssey co-chairman Greg Stemm said they will make an announcement revealing all of their findings soon.

Last fall the company told a federal judge that they likely found a shipwrecked 17th-century merchant vessel 40 miles southwest of England. They gained permission to salvage the wreckage but would not say if the treasure recently mined was linked to that vessel.

For security purposes, the company is not releasing the location of the ship.

Stemm said, "The outside world now understands that what we do is a real business and is repeatable and not just a lucky one shot deal. I don't know of anybody else who has hit more than one economically significant shipwreck."