Akerendam Shipwreck

On 19 January 1725 a Dutch East India Company ship, the Akerendam accompanied by two other ships was heading for Batavia (capital of the Dutch East Indies) with a crew of 200 people and 19 chests of gold and silver on board. The trip did not go as planned and the convoy was hit by a blizzard. The Akerendam was blown off course and sank at the northernmost tip of Runde Island, Norway, on 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.

Of the 6,625 gold coins, 6,505 are rare Dutch gold ducats, minted in Utrecht in 1724. The remaining 50,376 coins are silver. The majority are Dutch stuivers minted in 1724 as well. 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”.