1652 Willow Tree Shilling. Noe 2-B, Salmon 2-B, W-170. Rarity-7. VF Details--Corrosion Removed (PCGS).
71.1 grains. A leading highlight of the Massachusetts silver offerings from the Sydney F. Martin Collection. The obverse is warmly toned in dominant pewter-gray with bolder steel-olive outlines to most of the design elements. The reverse is darker overall with a mottling of reddish-gray, olive-russet and silver-gray. The deeper colors on the latter side are associated with light to moderate surface scale which, when taken in conjunction with some fine scratches seen in the lighter area at center, explains the PCGS qualifier. A small staple scratch at 2 o'clock on the reverse is also noted. The obverse is far smoother and better preserved overall with few marks apart from a couple of extremely faint pin scratches at upper right center that are well blended with the toning and easily overlooked during in hand viewing. We note a nearly full tree that is soft only at left center, but even here many details are visible. Full banded trunk, root structure, and most outer peripheral branches and leaves. The obverse legend is partial with only MA SETS:IN visible. The reverse shows a full date (the digit 2 is a tad soft), faintly legible XII denomination, and the peripheral legend fully legible apart from NDOM: N at upper right, which area is smooth. The outer beaded borders on both sides are partial, inner borders nearly full. There are only faint traces of doubling at 11 o'clock on the obverse, 6 o'clock on the reverse. Despite areas of peripheral softness, the impression is well centered on a well prepared planchet that is not too far out of round. The only mentionable edge irregularity is a shallow, scalloped indentation at 7 o'clock relative to the obverse. On most coins, the concept of grade, if not the iterations thereof, is pretty easy to puzzle out. Grading Willows is as much a personality test or a parlor game as it is a scientific exercise. Many collectors would rather have Ford's 2-B than the Roper-Kendall specimen; after all, the latter was graded AU Details--Damage by PCGS at the time of our March 2015 Kendall Foundation Collection sale, while Ford's was certified as AU-58 by PCGS after our (Stack's) Ford XII sale. However, the Roper-Kendall coin displays most of its defining Willow Tree, along with its shilling denomination and most of its date, all the essential aspects that make a Willow a Willow. The Ford piece, though basically Uncirculated, showed very little of this characteristic due to strike. Much can be said for the quality of the Roper-Kendall specimen's color and surface, its ancient reverse marks notwithstanding. The Partrick coin, earlier from our (Stack's) Reed Hawn sale of 1998 and a number of historic collections back to Crosby, offers a nice balance, with a decent tree and very nice color; alas, it has been certified just VF-30. The Stearns coin was very well worn; it reappeared in our (Stack's) Hain Family Collection sale along with a second, finer example. Although unheralded in some quarters, the present specimen from our (Bowers and Merena's) 1990 Rusbar sale is probably the best one of these there is, though it has graded lower than the Boyd-Ford and Roper-Kendall specimens. The amount of detail to the tree is remarkable, the surfaces are pleasingly original, and they are also quite smooth in hand despite the aforementioned impairments to the reverse. A well composed planchet joins this already impressive list of attributes to further explain why we hold the Rusbar specimen in such high regard among Noe 2-B Willow Tree shillings. We can account for just eight survivors from these dies all told, those previously mentioned in addition to the Lauder (1983) and Mills (1904)-Earle (1912) specimens.
PCGS# 890874. NGC ID: 2ARC.
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From the Sydney F. Martin Collection. Earlier ex our (Bowers and Merena's) Robert W. Rusbar Collection sale, September 1990, lot 1693; Lawrence R. Stack Collection, November 2006.

Estimate: $125000