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705

1652 SHILNG Willow Tree Shilling AU58 PCGS. Noe 2-B. 7

Currency:USD Category:Coins & Paper Money Start Price:90,000.00 USD Estimated At:1.00 - 2.00 USD
1652 SHILNG Willow Tree Shilling AU58 PCGS. Noe 2-B. 7
<B>1652 SHILNG Willow Tree Shilling AU58 PCGS.</B></I> Noe 2-B. 71.0 grains. Willow Tree coinage can best be understood in the context of the times and also in the context of New England coins from the NE series through the Pine Tree series. In 1652 Massachusetts was sparsely settled and the colony was governed by Puritan magistrates who essentially had the powers and rights that allowed them to rule as the king's agents. However, the colony's charter did not allow the magistrates the authority to coin their own money. The topic of why the Boston Mint came into being in 1652 in spite of this lack of authority is discussed in depth in the forward to the Hain catalog (Stack's, 1/2002). To summarize Michael Hodder's persuasive answer to this question is to essentially reduce it to three main points. The first answer was economic in nature. The colony was flooded with counterfeit coinage, and good coinage was needed to drive out the bad. However, the need for coinage does not in itself make the production of coins legal. The Boston Mint was established to provide genuine coins for the colony, but they were different in two important ways from coins produced in England: They were to be lighter and of lower fineness than their English equivalents, thus ensuring that they would not circulate outside Massachusetts. This was a good theory, but in practice it did not work and large numbers of NE coins left the colony. Sydney Noe pointed out a second reason for this series of coinage in his 1943-1952 references. Oliver Cromwell overthrew and executed Charles I in 1649, and the royalist forces of Charles II were defeated in September 1651. It was Noe's belief (not backed by solid historic research) that Protestant Oliver Cromwell was secretly supportive of the Protestant colonists. While Noe's contention is not based on archival documentation, it nevertheless "did make things easier for the Massachusetts Puritans, if only by removing from power a symbol of all they hated," as Hodder points out. The third historic reason for the establishment of the Boston Mint was it was a symbol of local sovereignty. While this is partly true, and the coins eventually used the same pine tree depicted on the colony's flag, it was a confluence of all three factors that created an environment favorable for the striking of NE, Willow, Oak, and Pine Tree coinage. These factors are important, but equally as important is the economic incentive on the part of John Hull and Robert Sanderson for the striking of these coins over 30 years.<BR> Michael Hodder points out in his multi-page examination of the background of these coins in the Hain catalog, that the Massachusetts General Court allowed the mint master "to take as his fee 1 shilling and three pence out of every 20 shillings worth of coins struck, plus an extra penny for wastage and loss. This effectively amounted to 6.66% commission on every coin." Hull and Sanderson continued to produce coins and make their substantial profit from them without lowering their commission rate until 1667, when the partners finally agreed to pay 40 pounds sterling immediately and an additional 10 pounds every year for the next seven years. Afterward, the two lowered their fee to 12 pence per pound plus an annuity of 20 pounds to the colony for the right to continue coining. Thus, the two were able to guarantee 30 years of employment and profit for themselves and their employees.<BR> The method of manufacture of the earliest coins in Massachusetts is paramount to understanding the Willow Tree coins specifically. The NE coins preceded the Willow Tree pieces, but only by a few months. NE coins were produced in an unusual method. Rather than striking round planchets, the mint first struck the NE and denomination at different parts of the thin strips of silver. Then the impressions were cut off the strip, weighed, and trimmed until it conformed to the 72 grains required by law. A crude method of production at best, even for the time. The Willow Tree coinage signaled a significant improvement in production and technology with the introduction of the rocker press. In <I>John Hull, The Mint And The Economics of Massachusetts Coinage,</B></I> author Louis Jordan explains:<BR><BR>"It took practice to accurately align the dies in the press and it took time to develop the techniques needed to proficiently feed the stock between the reciprocating rockers to produce a strip of fully impressed coins. Moreover, many examples, especially those from dies 1-A, display significant radical but unique errors that were not in the die. If the problems had been due to engraving errors the same radical errors would be replicated with each impression made from the die. However, that each error is unique demonstrates the errors are due to problems related to impressing the images on each individual specimen. These errors are certainly due to inexperience."<BR><BR> And errors are abundant in the Willow Tree series. But with practice the final die pairing of shillings and the lower denomination pieces show sharper, clearer definition. However, Willow coinage always shows an S-shaped bend in the planchet, a common characteristic of coins struck on a rocker press.<BR> It was Sylvester S. Crosby who first recognized the Willow Tree series as experimental in nature. On page 46 of his landmark <I>Early Coins of America,</B></I> (1875) he wrote:<BR><BR> "Next to the N E series we place the Willow Tree coins, these bearing the rudest resemblance to the draught accompanying the order for a change in the design.<BR> "The coins bearing this tree are so rude in conception and bungling in execution, (though not partaking of the errors of reversed letters which appear in some varieties of both Oak and Pine), as to deserve none other than a position among experimental attempts of novices in the art of coining; unless, as has been suggested, they are to be considered as counterfeits, which to us does not appear probable. So rude, indeed, are they, that it is difficult to believe them to have been accepted by any people except under urgent necessity for coin of some kind, however imperfect."<BR><BR> While Crosby may not have understood that Willow Tree coinage was struck on a rocker press, he certainly had an understanding of the experimental nature of these coins, poised as they were between the even cruder produced NE shillings and the Oak and Pine coins which were also struck by a rocker press but with a much improved technique.<BR> In general, Willow Tree shillings are multiply struck with most impressions showing evidence of a second or third striking, some impressions are off as much as 180 degrees. This particular coin shows two impressions, the second one almost directly above the first. As one would expect from the rocker press, the striking definition is irregular. The top and bottom of each side are sharply defined, while there is a central band of weakness on both obverse and reverse. That being said, the willow tree does display most of the details engraved in the obverse die. Likewise, on the reverse the 16 of the date is strong and the second impression of the top of the 2 in the date is bold at the top of that side. The obverse has a lovely iridescence over the basic gray patina, and the reverse is uniform light gray in color. There are no distinctive abrasions on either side of this magnificent coin, the location of the devices from the double punching should be sufficient to identify this piece in the future. In fact, the loop of the second 2 in the date is the tip-off that identifies this piece as the # 7 coin on Sydney Noe's roster of known specimens (1943). At that time, Noe listed 23 different pieces. Today the roster has only expanded to 36 individual coins.<BR><I>Ex: T. James Clark Collection; Carl Wurtzbach Collection.</B></I><BR><I>From The Troy Wiseman Collection, Part Two.</B></I><BR><BR><b>Shipping:</b> Coin/Currency (<a target="_blank" href="http://www.heritageauctions.com/common/shipping.php">view shipping information</a>)
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