|
Sale 31
|
|
press UP arrow key to increase the zoom ratio.
press DOWN arrow key to decrease the zoom ratio.
press RIGHT arrow key to increase the zoom window size.
press LEFT arrow key to decrease the zoom window size.
|
|
Lot 4
1652 Pine Tree Shilling. Large planchet. . Breen-42. PCGS graded AU-58 PQ. A most interesting and attractive specimen centered slightly to the lower left on the obverse. The tree is well defined with each branch and leaf clear. The reverse is equally bold and both sides are handsomely toned in bluish gray with the occasional golden highlight. Slight evidence of die clashing and reworking of the dies. Die steel for coinage was quite scarce in early America, thus dies were used and re-used to strike desperately needed coinage. When a die cracked or broke, it was repaired by either lapping down the surfaces or re-engraving the devices. Population 12. There are also 2 in 61, 4 in 62, 3 in 63 and one coin in 64.
One of the first colonies established during the colonial period, was the Massachusetts Bay Colony. As the population grew, the need for coinage as a circulating medium grew. In the 1630s a loose barter system prevailed, any hard currency (copper, silver or gold) was siphoned off to Britain through both taxes and by selling the colonists goods at inflated prices. Purchases were made by trading goods for goods: furs, fish, grain, musket balls, wampum, shells, etc. The only coins in circulation in Massachusetts at the time were outdated English farthings and some Spanish silver, which would have been used by passing merchant ships and buccaneers stopping by Boston as a port of call. King Charles I of England was executed, and his forces were defeated by 1651, thus the royal regulations governing the Colony were no longer relevant. The General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony authorized John Hull and Robert Saunderson to strike much needed silver in the denominations of XII Pence (one Shilling), VI Pence and III Pence in mid 1652. The first coinage was the NE coinage, followed a year later by the Willow Tree pieces, later the Oak Tree coinage and finally the various Pine Tree issues. The date 1652 was continuously used for decades, as the Colony had no authority to continue to strike its own coins. Later, when King Charles II was restored to the English throne, he allowed the coinage to continue after paying the taxes due. Many of the large size Oak Tree and Pine Tree pieces were bent and toothmarked as witch tokens, as the superstitious local citizenry of the time believed that carrying such a coin would offer protection from witches. Clipping and shaving for illegal profit was also rampant. From 1675, coiner Hull made the planchets smaller and thicker, to make the coins harder to bend and clip, though shaving continued. Massachusetts silver coins are among the most important colonial issues, as they were the first silver coins struck in the continental United States. They circulated widely, including Canada and were obliquely invloved in one of the earliest colonial revolts against the mother country when in 1684 the British revoked the charter of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and with it their coinage right (PCGS # 23) .
Estimated Value $9,000 - 11,000.
|
| |
| Realized $12,190 |
|
