 1652 Massachusetts Bay Colony. Oak Tree Shilling. N.11, Cr.6b-E2, W.16. R-6. 69.5 gns. Extremely Fine. The Noe Plate Coin. The Wurtzbach Plate Coin. A lovely specimen, nicer than the ones in the next two lots, Norweb's, Oechnser's, the NN 60th sale coin, Roper's, Picker's, all three of Stearns' coins and both of the 1991 ANS exhibition coins. In his day, Breen thought this was the finest known and so annotated a list of Boyd's Oak Tree coins (that will be donated to the ANS). Nice medium silver gray in color on the obverse with areas of iridescent blue and gold showing.
The reverse is a lighter shade of gray with some larger areas of iridescent gold and very pale blue visible. Strong tree with full trunk and root structure showing. Letters in the peripheral legend on this side soft at the lower right and along almost the entire left side. Reverse softer now than seen on the obverse, letters in the peripheral legend from about 12:00 to 6:00 quite soft although still fully legible. Central detail sharp as usual. Small planchet flaw in the obverse center at lower left, some lighter ones visible here and there, reverse a little rough through the lower third. Die states about as seen on most others. Described by Wurtzbach on his collector's ticket as ''Excessively rare in this condition. A very unusual specimen of this rare variety and that the tree is sharply struck. Usually it is only weakly struck. From the famous Virgil Brand Collection.''
Ex Carl Wurtzbach, T. James Clarke, F.C.C. Boyd Collections.
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