There's cursed treasure all over the Sea of Thieves. The most common curse applied to a piece of treasure, and generally the one most commonly encountered, seems to be the Skeleton curse. You can get it from stealing cursed treasure like Briggsy did, drinking from a cursed chalice like Flameheart Senior did, even drinking from a cursed river like Flameheart Junior did. The Skeleton curse is everywhere, which explains why there are so many undead Skeletons everywhere, and why the Order of Souls is a Trading Company that revolves around the Skeletons.
The Shores of Gold curse, whilst possible to receive outside of Tribute Peak by interacting with cursed golden idols or cursed golden coins [Source: Sea of Thieves: Athena's Fortune novel], is far rarer, comparatively.
Furthermore, having the Shores of Gold curse doesn't prevent you from getting the Skeleton curse. That's confirmed by the fact that Rathbone contracted a particularly potent Shores of Gold curse after stealing treasure from Tribute Peak (his entire arm turned to solid gold), before later, developing the Skeleton curse that turned him into the Skeleton Lord known as the Gold Hoarder [Source: Sea of Thieves: Athena's Fortune novel].
A person is only immune to a curse, such as the Skeleton curse, if they already have that same curse. The Gold Hoarder was promised the treasure chest containing the cursed coins of Cortez, in exchange for his service to Davy Jones: the Gold Hoarder couldn't become "twiced-cursed" from this chest, which would've turned anyone else into a Skeleton. And, as previously stated, the Skeleton curse is far more common than the Shores of Gold curse in the Sea of Thieves.
So the question arises... why do the Gold Hoarder representatives have the Shores of Gold curse, instead of some other curse, like the Skeleton curse? Especially when there's so much more treasure cursed with the Skeleton curse than the Shores of Gold curse?
Is it because the Shores of Gold curse functions uniquely when compared to all other curses? Because of aesthetic? Or is it just because of plot convenience?
