 1652 Massachusetts Bay Colony. Oak Tree Sixpence. N.18, Cr.2-B, W.25. R-7+ (conjectural, could be higher). 35.9 gns. Very Fine. The Noe Plate Coin. The Wurtzbach Plate Coin. The 1914 ANS Exhibition Coin (Plate 11). Both the obverse and reverse of this piece are a pleasing pale silver gray in color with a few areas of light gold and russet showing. Tree quite indistinct but trunk, branches, and some root detail visible. Letters in the legend on this side soft where present on the flan. Fairly well struck in the center of the reverse, peripheral letters in the legend most sharp where present on the flan. Obverse considerably off center to the lower left with quite a bit of extra metal showing beyond the outer beaded border on the upper right.
Reverse slightly off center to the lower left, portions of the letters on that side run off the flan. Some light reverse marks, one small dig below in the date. Annotated by Wurtzbach on his collector's ticket as ''R-6. May be unique. Parmelee had a poor one.'' Exceptionally rare: the cataloguer can find only one other Noe 18 offered for public sale in recent memory, the one in our 1970 MHS sale (lot 9) that was bought by the ANS. This variety was missing from every other recent sale of major collections of Massachusetts silver coins including Stearns, Garrett, Picker, Hain, Roper, the NN trio (48th, 59th and 60th sales) and Oechsner. There was no Noe 18 shown at the 1991 ANS exhibition. This variety is on the want lists of many contemporary collectors of the series.
Breen thought there might have been four or five known back in the early 1950's and he may still be right today. The recutting on the 2 in the date (first punched in backwards and then corrected) makes the date look like 1650.
Ex H.O. Granberg, Charles E. Clapp, Carl Wurtzbach, T. James Clarke, F.C.C. Boyd Collections.
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| Hammer Price: $100,000.00
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