Showing all 3 results

A Dutch East India Company ship, the Akerendam , was built in 1724. On 19 January 1725, in a convoy with two other ships, heading for Batavia with a crew of 200 people and 19 chests of gold and silver on board, sank in a snow storm March 8, 1725. Even though the ship sank near the cliffs of Runde Island (Norwegian west coast) there were no survivors. During the next months, 5 chests of coins were recovered. No more was found and the site was forgotten until Swedish and Norwegian sports divers rediscovered the wreck site in 1972. Although little remained of the ship, about 57.000 gold and silver coins were recovered. The 6.600 gold coins were mostly the rare Dutch gold ducats, minted in Utrecht in 1724; prior to this find only a handful of these ducats were known. Norway’s largest coin treasure is also referred to as ‘the Runde Treasure’