1652 Pine Tree Shilling. Small Planchet. Noe-17, Salmon 3-B, W-840. Rarity-3. MS-62 (PCGS).
71.3 grains. A coin with few rivals, and even fewer potential superiors, in the census for the Noe-17 Small Planchet. Outstanding surfaces are hard and lustrous with a softly frosted texture, some good gloss also in evidence. Iridescent cobalt blue highlights enliven a base of sandy-gray (obverse) and russet-gray (reverse) patina. The obverse impression is full and sharp with the outer border beads faint or missing only from 3 o'clock to 8:30, the result of clips at lower right, lower left and, especially, an attempt at adjustment as betrayed by the file marks at 6 o'clock. A similar area of adjustment is seen at 9 o'clock on this side. The reverse has a similarly full legend and bold to sharp centers, although that side is drawn to 11:30 with the outer border incomplete at upper left. In contrast, there is a broad lip of virgin planchet beyond the outer border from 2 to 8 o'clock. Both sides are free of troublesome marks. A shallow obverse flan flaw at the left base of the letter M in MASATHVSETS and the adjacent inner border beads is as made and serves as a useful identifier. A standout survivor from these dies, finer than both Ford coins, the Partrick coin sold in Heritage's January 2015 sale, and virtually all others, including Archangel:7011. The Partrick coin in our (Stack's) 1974 Donald Groves [Partrick] Collection sale went to the Kendall Foundation collector and realized $25,850 in our March 2015 Baltimore Auction as PCGS/CAC AU-58. It later appeared in Heritage's February 2022 Long Beach Signature Auction, this time as NGC MS-63. Despite the bump in certified grade, we find it inferior to the present coin, if only marginally so. Apart from the offered coin, the only other contenders for CC#1 standing for these dies are the Norweb specimen, later Hain:140, and the coin to which the latter is compared to by the Hain cataloger - the specimen in Oxford University's Ashmolean Museum. This is clearly an important coin among Noe-17 Pine Trees and, aided by the aforementioned obverse flan flaw, the diligent researcher may be able to trace it earlier cabinets. With such outstanding quality it has obviously benefited from expert numismatic preservation going back several generations.
PCGS# 914819. NGC ID: 2ARZ.
To view supplemental information and all items from the Sydney F. Martin Collection, click here.
From the Sydney F. Martin Collection. Earlier from the Lawrence R. Stack Collection, November 2006.

Estimate: $50000