 1652 Massachusetts Bay Colony. Willow Tree Shilling. Noe 1-A, Crosby 1-A. Rarity-6+. 71.5 gns. Extremely Fine. The Noe Census #2 Coin. The Noe Plate Coin. The Noe Enlargement Coin. The 1914 ANS Exhibition Coin. The obverse is a nice and fairly even medium silver gray in color with some traces of iridescent blue and a couple areas paler in color while the reverse is a little deeper in shade around the rim, the center being lighter gray. Nearly full tree, just some softness in the branches in the right and particularly in the lower left. Full trunk and root structure show. Legend around nearly complete as visible in the illustration. On the reverse the denomination and date are sharp and full, while the peripheral legend is incomplete and somewhat jumbled but still essentially legible with some imagination. Old dig on the obverse along the right descender of second A, other marks essentially trivial. Obverse about perfectly centered, reverse a little off to the upper left, leaving (in order to get the weight right) considerable extra metal beyond the outline of the die edge at lower right. This is significant for technicians of the series since there are very few Willow Tree Shillings known that show the outline of the die edge. The arc visible on this should allow for a close approximation of the actual diameter of this reverse die. Very clear planchet bends visible on the obverse, parallel and running horizontally when the coin is rotated about 35 degrees. These are as made by the rocker press used to strike this series.
Rare: the cataloguer has seen 13 of these. For some unknown reason Noe 1-A and N.2-A seem to come in EF and better grades more often than not. Described by Breen as ''Only 27 Willow Shillings are known to date; only six of them of the present variety (1-A), and three of those are in museums which means that this shilling is exactly as rare as the Class I 1804 dollar, as well as being much more historically important. It is VF or better but has been bent twice and straightened. Ill. in the Standard Catalogue. Ex Newcomer 3066 (cost $78.25), H. Chapman (ill. as his coin in ANS 1914 Exhibition, Plate 39); Parsons:3, Earle 1919, Mills 5, Parmelee 307, Bushnell 142, Woodward Sale of 4/28/63 (Brooks, Colburn etc. consignments), Jeremiah Colburn Coll. where ill. on Plate XX, No. iv of the supplement to Dickeson's Manual (1860), Crosby 1bA2; Noe Plate III & Enlargement Plate VIII. One of perhaps four known American coins outside the Mint Coll. which can be traced back to 1860 or before, the others being the Abbey cent, Stickney dollar, and 1792 Peter Getz $ 1/2 with the chisel mark.''
Provenance as stated above.
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| Hammer Price: $240,000.00
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