 1652 Massachusetts Bay Colony. Oak Tree Shilling. Noe 5. 66.6 gns. Extremely Fine, essentially Choice. Lovely lavender-gray tones fill the fields and grace the high points of the devices, while deeper steel-gray toning fills the furrows in and around the devices and legends on both sides. Here is a stunning coin featuring about average centering for the die variety, with the large blank area at the upper obverse and the bottom portions of the obverse legend falling slightly off the flan. Some old scratches and pinpricks belie an old attempt to flatten out the large die break that fills the blank area at the upper obverse, although we can not be sure of this attempted enhancement. There is, however, a series of tiny pinpricks spread evenly about the obverse surface that are not visible with the unaided eye. Curiously, the reverse has no such markings.
What is so special about this coin is the utter completeness of the Oak Tree. Usually Noe 5 is found in some failing state of the dies, the obverse worn into oblivion and the reverse severely cracked and breaking, as evidenced by the Ford, Hain, and other coins. On this coin, the reverse is somewhat cracked, but the Oak Tree is bold and fully defined, with the diagonal ''bark'' lines visible on the trunk and the tiny saplings visible above the ground line. Here is a truly special coin in a die state that may not come up for sale again in the near future; surely it will find a welcome home in the cabinet of a die variety or die state collector of Massachusetts silver coins.
| |
|
