The find at Runde:   Salvage 1972

On 16 July 1972, two Swedish sports divers, Bengt-Olof Gustafsson and Stefan Persson were diving off the bird island Runde along with Eystein Kroh-Dalen from Norway. In a bay southeast of Kvalneset, the northernmost point of the island, they entered the water from Mercur II, a boat belonging to a diving club in Ålesund.    Read about:  the Akerendam, the Shipwreck, Salvage 1725, Overview, Cleaning

In a clearing in the three-foot high kelp, Stefan Persson discovered a quantity of even-sized, small, round stones. On picking them up, he realised they were coins and that he had stumbled onto a treasure. He alerted the other two, who in the meantime had found one of the 40 canons that had been on board the Akerendam. They kept their discovery secret from the other divers on board Mercur II and the following day the group of three returned alone with equipment which enabled them to retrieve the coins. Over a period of three weeks the divers, working under police protection, were able to salvage close to half a ton of coins.

The following year, Bergen Shipping Museum re-examined the site, covering a somewhat larger area. This investigation resulted in the discovery of approximately 135 kg of coins. After registration at the Coin Cabinet, the treasure was divided; the finders were allotted 67.7%, the Norwegian state 25.4% and the Dutch state 7%. Most of the coins that became the property of the Norwegian state are deposited at the Oslo University Coin Cabinet, but some coins were distributed to other museums, one of these being the Shipping Museum in Bergen. The finders' share of the treasure was deposited at the Central Bank of Norway for several years before it was transported to Switzerland in 1978 to be auctioned.