TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- With the state desperate for cash to balance its budget, one lawmaker has come up with a solution worthy of Blackbeard or Captain Kidd.

Rep. Juan Zapata wants to plunder Florida's booty.

One of the world's largest publicly owned collections of Spanish treasure -- doubloons and other coins, some gold and silver ingots and chains -- belongs to the state.

"We have some interesting goodies in the closet," said the Miami Republican. "Why not have an interesting garage sale, put them out there and see what we can get for them?"

How much the state could reap, though, is uncertain, as lawmakers struggle with a budget that is $5 billion smaller than the previous one.

One expert says Florida's 1,600 gold and 22,000 silver coins are worth at least $17 million, but state officials say the collection is priceless.

Much of it is hidden in a vault and occasionally lent to museums across the nation. The state gets up to 25 percent of treasure salvaged from shipwrecks in its waters, but the collection also includes less glamorous artifacts such as cannon balls, plates and cups.

Putting it on the auction block should be out of the question, said Ryan Wheeler, the state's chief of archaeological research.

"These are tough times, but we don't sell treasure as a Florida family," Wheeler said. "We don't sell the family Bible or grandmother's china."

Zapata's raid on the state's treasure, though, fizzled Wednesday. Unaware of exactly what the state has in its treasure chest, he offered an amendment to require selling off artifacts from one of Florida's most famous wrecks: the Nuestra Senora de Atocha, recovered off the Marquesas keys where it sank in 1622.

The problem is Florida doesn't have any Atocha booty. Salvor Mel Fisher fought efforts by the state and federal governments to seize the treasure and won his case in the U.S. Supreme Court.

When officials in the Secretary of State's office informed Zapata of that, he withdrew the amendment. They didn't tell him, though, what treasure the state does have because he didn't ask.

That has Zapata fuming.

"They're sitting on a treasure, and we didn't know about it," he said. "This is a treasure hunt right now."