 1652 Massachusetts Bay Colony. Oak Tree Shilling. N.8, Cr.5-A, W.13. R-6+ (or perhaps higher). 71.4 gns. Choice Very Fine. The Noe Plate Coin. The Wurtzbach Plate Coin. Both sides of this important example are medium silver gray in color. Good tree with most root structure and some trunk detail visible. Obverse peripheral legend a little soft in places but essentially as made, however. Reverse sharper as usual (and as usual for Oak Shillings in general), the peripheral legend being soft only at the upper right. Fairly well centered on both sides as visible from the illustration. No accidental defects requiring mention, just a planchet rim crack at the top of the obverse (also as made). Obverse die seems perfect; reverse failing at the top.
Annotated by Wurtzbach on his collector's ticket as ''A rare prize gem. One of the great prizes in Massachusetts colonial silver. Excessively rare. But two known. The other one Good. Mills Sale 1904 to DeWitt Smith. Smith to V. Brand. Brand Estate to C. Wurtzbach March 18, 1936.'' Rare but exactly how so is not certain (here's another research topic for the new generation to tackle). The cataloguer suggested Rarity-6 in the Hain sale, in part because there were two specimens included in that collection and six had been featured in the Stearns sale (one of which was graded Unc).
However, noting that there was no N.8 in Garrett, Roper, Oechsner, Picker, MHS (1970) or NN's 48th and 59th sales, nor was there one to show at the 1991 ANS exhibition, on reflection he feels that R-6+ is more approximate and suggests R-7- might not be out of line for N.8. There may be fewer than 10 of these. Carl Wurtzbach knew of only two specimens in the late 1930's, his and one he graded Good. In the early 1950's when Breen studied Boyd's Massachusetts silver the census of survivors was still two.
Ex Heman Ely Collection (W.E. Woodward, January 8, 1884, lot 1000); Mills Collection (Lyman H. Low, January 17, 1910, lot 12); DeWitt Smith, Virgil Brand, Carl Wurtzbach, T. James Clarke, F.C.C. Boyd Collections.
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