1652 Pine Tree Shilling. Large Planchet. Noe-11, Salmon 9-F, W-760. Rarity-4. No H in MASATVSETS. AU-50 (PCGS).
72.1 grains. Cataloged by Walter Breen in 1974 as: The famous 'Dropped H,' reading MASATVSETS. Overall About Unc., or a hair's breadth away, obv. with considerable mint lustre and virtually full sharpness, rev. not so strong, and with some light porosity, which looks as though it might have been in the original planchet. An outstanding example for condition, struck on an irregular planchet so that tops of MASATV and first AND are off flan -- not clipped as it is of correct weight. Trailing only the spectacular Crosby plate coin (with a provenance including Bushnell, our sales of the Davis-Graves, Empire, Oechsner, and Hain collections, and Partrick) and the Noe and Wurtzbach plate coin (Ford:103) in our experience, this is a magnificent specimen, showing abundant luster and excellent surface quality. The obverse is fully lustrous, frosty and smooth, toned deep warm pewter-gray and olive. The reverse, less basined and engraved in lower relief, has nonetheless managed to retain luster around design elements and in protected areas, those regions toned gold and contrasting beautifully with the blue-gray undertones that backlight otherwise pewter-olive fields. The obverse is fully detailed, save for the area at left where some letters are only partially on the planchet. Border denticles are present from 12 o'clock to 4 o'clock, raised scribe lines that defined the inner circle before those beads were punched are prominent, and multiple sets of clash marks are readily seen. The reverse is better centered and shows only the faintest friction. Scattered microscopic pits at the central reverse were there before striking and do not harm the superb visual appeal. Traces of a clash are seen in the upper right of the inner circle. A few little marks are noted left of the Roman numeral X in the denomination, the only significant contact marks, but still inoffensive. A beautiful example, far finer than the usual Fine to Very Fine examples that have been present in most well known cabinets. The Bushnell-Hain-Partrick coin is magnificent and easily the best of these; it brought a fair value of $73,437.50 in the 2015 Partrick sale. The Boyd-Ford piece was a borderline Unc and was likely undervalued at $25,300, even nearly two decades ago. Newman's was sharp but mattelike. Garrett's, ex: Earle, has not been seen by your cataloger but also deserves mention among the high grade survivors; the same can be said of the piece in our (Stack's) 1975 Essex Institute sale. The 1890 Cleneay coin was beautiful but has not been traced beyond its appearance in the 1904 Mills sale. This coin is nice enough that a provenance from before 1974 likely awaits a patient researcher. Crosby was onto something when he made the reverse of this variety his reverse A; namely, it looks a lot more like it belongs among the Oak Trees than among the Pine Trees. Noe chose to position this variety at the end of the Large Planchets, an order maintained by Salmon. Perhaps another author will someday reorder this series and place this closer to the Oaks, where it seems to belong.
PCGS# 914818. NGC ID: 2ARW.
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From the Sydney F. Martin Collection. Earlier ex Richard Picker; Pine Tree Rare Coin Auction's Promised Lands Sale, November 1974, lot 217, via Lester Merkin to the following; our sale of the Henry P. Kendall Foundation Collection, March 2015 Baltimore Auction, lot 2391; our Chicago ANA Auction of August 2015, lot 10002; Heritage's FUN Signature Auction of January 2016, lot 3537. heritage lot tag and Sydney F. Martin collector envelope with attribution notation included.

Estimate: $12500