Several dozen scuba divers got to pluck golden coins from the ruins of the ``Lost City of Atlantis'' about 40 feet deep off Key Biscayne on Friday.

Divers then redeemed the ersatz treasure for cash and merchandise at Monty's at Miami Beach Marina.

The treasure hunt was part of a publicity campaign organized by the Plantation-based Neptune Society, which built the quarter-acre artificial reef two years ago as an underwater cemetery and home for marine life.

The Neptune Society, which bills itself as the largest cremation-only company in the United States, invested about $2 million to construct the concrete and bronze network of columns and statues anchored to the sandy bottom about three miles offshore.

To pay for the project, the company sells ``placements'' -- putting cremated remains inside benches, balustrades and sculptures adorned with memorial plaques.

So far, company officials say, they have deployed about 80 ``placements,'' with 300 more on order. They hope to expand the site to 16 acres holding the ashes of up to 100,000 people.

``The more people who can get on the reef, the better,'' Neptune CEO Dion Joannou said. ``People want unique final resting places, and this is one of them. The reef is creating life after life.''

Indeed, the gated courtyard to Atlantis -- guarded by two lion statues and featuring a central podium -- is covered with algae and soft corals. Even with 30 divers swimming around looking for coins, schools of snapper and grunt, and numerous colorful tropicals, went about their fishy business unfazed.

Regular visitors to the site said it is home to a moray eel and two stingrays named Desi and Lucy.

For more information about the Neptune Memorial Reef, visit www.nmreef.com or call 1-888-716-REEF. To dive the site, go to GPS coordinates: 25 degrees, 42.036 north; 80 degrees, 05.409 west.

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