 1652 Massachusetts Bay Colony. Oak Tree Shilling. Noe 1, Crosby 9-H, Wurtzbach 20. Rarity-3. 72.7 gns. Choice About Uncirculated. Noe Plate Coin. Wurtzbach Plate Coin. Outstanding quality for one of these, nicer in the cataloguer's opinion than the three Hain coins, Oechsner's, Garrett's, Norweb's EDS, Picker's, a rival to Weinberg's lovely N.1 (no. 26 in the 1991 ANS exhibition catalogue). Both the obverse and reverse are an attractive rich coin silver gray with some traces of pale iridescent blue and very delicate rose visible in places. Full tree, branch on left slightly soft but this entirely as made. Most letters in the obverse and reverse legends sharp save for those on the extreme left on the obverse, top and lower right on the reverse.
Obverse slightly off center to the lower right but with all the letters in the legends still fully on the flan. Reverse just about perfectly centered, as expected. Light horizontal striations visible at the lower left on the obverse obscuring S in the legend, others visible at the top of the reverse (opposite portion of the flan from the former), NE striated but still fully legible. Reverse die broken through ND of NEWENGLAND. Annotated on Wurtzbach's collector's ticket as ''Unusual in having inscription all on both sides.''
Described by Breen as ''Ex. Fine or so (bought as Unc.); reverse well centered with all of border showing (the only one we ever saw thus); all of legends on flan. Dark steel patination. Ex Wurtzbach and C.E. Clapp. Ill. on Noe Plate. R-2 but unusually nice.'' Noe 1 is the only Oak Tree shilling with NEW ENGLAND starting at the top of the coin. While the reverse die was engraved slightly oval in shape so the coins it struck would look round, the obverse die was not. In consequence, most N.1 shillings are a bit off center on the obverse.
Ex Charles E. Clapp, Carl Wurtzbach, T. James Clarke, F.C.C. Boyd Collections.
| |
|
