Miscovich’s appearance at the bench trial was neither his first nor his last attempt to establish his claim to the emeralds, but it did represent his fullest public account of their discovery. To hear him tell it, the story started as every treasure hunt should: in a bar, with a beer, over a map and a piece of coral-encrusted clay. In January 2010, Miscovich said, a handyman who had done work for him in Pennsylvania, a guy named Mike Cunningham, had arranged a meeting at the Bull & Whistle, a tourist bar in Key West. Cunningham bought his old boss a beer, produced from his pocket a triangle of broken pottery, and explained that he’d found the potsherd while scuba diving. He showed Miscovich a photocopy of a nautical chart. An x marked the location
