Silver Ounce 2021 Zeewijk Shipwreck, Coin from Australia - detailed information

The Australian one ounce silver piece (abbreviated as 1 oz and designated with Ag for "silver") is a bullion and commemorative coin format. Uniquely, in Australia there are two mints authorised to strike legal tender: the Royal Australian Mint (which also makes the country's circulating coinage) and the Perth Mint which only makes collector and bullion coins, as well as other bullion products.

Both mints endeavour to create coins with attractive designs, and to introduce new designs and themes often, in order to raise the numismatic value of the coins over the value of previous metal used.

The 2021 Zeewijk triangular one-ounce silver coin is the fourth and final release in the Australian Shipwreck series. The Zeewijk follows on from the first three popular releases in the series featuring the Batavia, the Vergulde Draeck (Gilt Dragon) and Zuytdorp. The coins were issued in Brilliant Uncirculated grade.

The exquisite design of the reverse conveys two scenes to communicate the journey of the Zeewijk. With the image of the ship viewed upright, the Zeewijk is shown setting sail in its full glory. Flipping the coin to view the text of "1727" and "Zeewijk" upright depicts the ship in its final state capsized shortly after wrecking in 1727. The obverse design depicts scenes from the dramatic story of the Zeewijk.

The Zeewijk left the Netherlands in 1726 for Batavia with 208 seamen and a rich cargo of more than 315,000 guilders in ten chests. Having lost 28 men by the time it reached the Cape of Good Hope in 1727, further disaster soon struck when the Zeewijk hit reef off the Western Australian coast.

Managing to set up camp on a nearby island and saving the chests of guilders, eleven of the survivors later launched the longboat to raise the alarm in Batavia. Tragically, these men were never seen again. Meanwhile, the remaining crew salvaged material from the Zeewijk’s wreck and ingeniously built another boat, named Sloepie, reinforced with local mangrove timber. More than ten months after being shipwrecked, the men and chests of guilders set sail in Sloepie. After just four weeks, 82 survivors victoriously landed at Batavia in their makeshift boat.

The Zeewijk was the last Dutch East Indiaman to be wrecked off the Western Australian coast and Sloepie was the first boat built by Europeans in Australia.