Treasure Coins: Ancient Gold Coins Recovered From Shipwrecks
Dokos Shipwreck, the oldest in the world, was discovered by the father of underwater archaeology,
Peter Throckmorton, after almost four thousand years on August 23, 1975. A simple pile of ceramics and stone anchors and other stone items devoid of all biodegradable organic material, this wreck, unfortunately, contains no coins for one simple reason: the wooden vessel sank beneath the waves almost 2,000 years before the first coins were struck from electrum in
Lydia.
Since then,
UNESCO estimates that over three million other vessels have joined the Dokos shipwreck at the bottom of the ocean. Today, approximately 85% of all trade is transported by ship, and this percentage was greater in the ancient world. Ancient shipwrecks were mainly filled with amphora, “the cargo containers of the B.C. world” (Villano). These vessels, however, carried both physical and cultural goods, and it is possible to trace not only trade