
Undated [1652] Massachusetts Bay Colony. New England Shilling. N.III-B, Cr. ill. 3, W.4. R-7 to 7+. 71.8 gns. Choice Very Fine. The Wurtzbach Plate Coin. The Noe Census #8 Coin. The obverse and reverse are a nice even coin silver gray in color. The piece is pleasingly round in outline. There are no distracting marks, nicks or defects that require specific mention. On the obverse the NE punches have clearly been recut, the former at least once and the latter radically once (possibly twice) with serifs added to the upper and lower strokes which are tentative and not at all professional in appearance. These letters have been entered onto the coin fairly sharply and axially aligned correctly so there is no softness on either side (the bottom of the first downward stroke of N is soft due to a slight difference in the sizing of the planchet). On the back the denomination punch was also sharply entered, a little more strongly on the right than on the left, resulting in a lack of the outline of the cartouche on that side. The second I has clearly been recut at least once, quite radically, and the punch has broken fairly severely from the base of that numeral down to the edge of the cartouche below.
Extremely rare: about on the order of the Noe I-A offered above. The cataloguer has seen only four of these including this, ANS, 1991 COAC (Alan Weinberg's) and an EF in a New England collection. There was no Noe III-B in the Stearns, Garrett, Picker, Norweb, Roper, Hain, MHS (1970), Oechsner, or NN 48th, 59th, and 60th sales. Breen called this ''About equal to the last'' (i.e., the N.I-A offered above) and the present cataloguer would agree.
Ex Dr. Thomas Hall, Virgil Brand, Carl Wurtzbach, T. James Clarke, F.C.C. Boyd Collections.
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| Hammer Price: $300,000.00
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