COINS OF THE GILT DRAGON

PREV ARTICLE NEXT ARTICLE FULL ISSUE PREV FULL ISSUE

V21 2018 INDEX E-SYLUM ARCHIVE

The E-Sylum: Volume 21, Number 36, September 9, 2018, Article 28

While adding a coin to this week's Numismatic Nuggets I followed a link to this article about the coins of Dutch East India Company ship the Gilt Dragon which sank near Australia in 1656. It's by Andrew Crellin of Sterling & Currency in Fremantle, Western Australia. See the complete article online for tables of coin statistics. -Editor

The Gilt Dragon was a “jacht” of the Dutch East India Company (V.O.C.) that wrecked off the coast of Western Australia in 1656. Not only was this just the 25th European vessel recorded to have reached the shores of the Australian continent, it was only the second to land with a known quantity of silver coins on board.

The Gilt Dragon stands apart from all other wrecks in Australia as being the “first modern discovery of an outward-bound seventeenth century Dutch East Indiaman.” Although the wreck of the Gilt Dragon has been studied in detail since 1963, the mystery surrounding it’s survivors remains as strong as ever.

At the time the Gilt Dragon sank, it was carrying eight chests of silver coins, intended to fund the purchase of spices from Batavia (now Jakarta in Indonesia). Research by the maritime archeologist Jeremy Green indicated that this equated to “…about 40,000 individual coins.”

When the Dutch authorities in Batavia learned of the wreck, several attempts were made to secure the eight chests of treasure, however the search parties were not able to sight the wreck, let alone any of the survivors or the treasure.

The wreck of the Gilt Dragon lived on in local legend across West Australia however, yet remained undisturbed for more than three centuries, and only came to light in 1963, when several recreational spear-fishermen stumbled upon it.

The story of the period shortly following the discovery of the wreck of the Gilt Dragon is nearly as captivating as the story of the wreck itself - controversy, dynamite, bureacracy, treasure, and sadly even suicide all feature in the Gilt Dragon’s story.

The Coins Recovered from the Gilt Dragon
While it is widely accepted that the Gilt Dragon was carrying 40,000 silver coins when it wrecked, research by Jeremy Green indicates that “there are over 20,000 coins still unaccounted for[3]”, and further that “A major proportion of [the coins that have been recovered] are badly corroded.[4]”

Of the approximately 20,000 coins that have been recovered, just 4,288 have been identified and are legally held in private hands.

Analysis of the 4,288 coins that have been identified and are legally held in private hands yields the following information:

These statistics clearly show that the most readily available coin from the wreck of the Gilt Dragon is a Spanish colonial 8 reals struck at the Mexico City Mint in Mexico. The coins recovered from the wreck of the Gilt Dragon that offer the best combination of rarity, size and visual appeal are arguably the silver 8 reals struck at the Segovia Mint - just 20 of them are known in private hands, they are the largest of the very few “milled” coins included within the wreck’s treasure.

I read more about the wreck of the Gilt Dragon last night - the fate of the survivors that were left behind really isn’t known: "While seven crew members from Vergulde Draak completed the voyage to Batavia in the ship’s boat, the vast majority of the survivors, including the captain, possibly never left the WA mainland after the wrecking event and their ultimate fate remains unknown, despite the VOC spending a great deal of time and effort searching for them, losing several ship’s boats and their crews in the process" (Green 1977:48–60).

In some ways, they are the first Europeans to “settle” on the Australian continent - I’m always amazed that we have these incredible stories on our shores here in West Australia. We don’t have the same number or size of shipwrecks that Florida has as an example, but the stories here really are incredible.

I’m at work on a booklet at present that identifies the different types of coins recovered from each shipwreck off our coast, as little has been written to date. There ain’t enough hours in the day!