1652 Pine Tree Sixpence. Noe-32, Salmon 1-A, W-660. Rarity-6+. Without Pellets at Trunk. AU Details--Repaired (PCGS).
35.5 grains. Fine circular tooling marks come to light under low magnification. Still, a fairly remarkable example of the variety, somewhat higher in overall grade than nearly every other specimen seen by us. Both sides are light silver-gray with a few areas moderately darker in appearance. The tree is a bit soft on the right but full on the left, the root structure is mostly complete, and the inner beaded border is whole around much of its circumference. The peripheral legend can be read from about 7 to 1 o'clock, as usual for the variety. On the reverse, the peripheral legend is soft nearly all the way around, but the denomination and date are sound and the inner beaded border is complete. The arm's length eye appeal is strong and this well-pedigreed specimen should have no problem finding a new home. Two examples of this rare Noe number in the Boyd estate came to market in our (Stack's) 2005 Ford XII sale. The better of the two was a Choice About Uncirculated coin, the Noe plate piece, and far and away the finest known; it brought $80,500. This is the less attractive duplicate, which sold for $18,400 in its 2005 offering, $17,250 in our (Stack's) 2010 sale. The Norweb coin went to Partrick, later to Salmon, and was graded AU-50 by NGC for both sales. As an example of the difficulty of ranking the quality of coins based upon pictures, the Norweb catalog notes that that specimen was "finer than the Noe plate coin," which was absolutely not the case. Tempting such treachery, we have not seen the EF Garrett coin, which looks sharper than the Brand-Kendall coin (PCGS VF-30 in our March 2015 sale), but not as pleasing. The Stearns collection amassed four of these (!), a cleaned and granular example therein later going to Roper and Salmon, to sell as NGC AU Details--Cleaned in Heritage's August 2022 Signature Auction. Another, lower grade Stearns piece reappeared in our (Stack's) January 2022 Hain sale. The AU Picker-Salmon specimen is marred by reverse scratches. There is one in the ANS Collection. Notably, no specimen of this variety was included in the Mills, Stickney, or Earle sales. With most survivors in lower grades and/or also impaired, our offering of the uncommonly sharp and relatively pleasing Ford-Martin coin is a fleeting opportunity that deserves serious bidder consideration.
PCGS# 911377. NGC ID: 2ART.
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From the Sydney F. Martin Collection. Earlier ex F.C.C. Boyd; John J. Ford, Jr.; our (Stack's) sale of the John J. Ford, Jr. Collection, Part XII, October 2005, lot 135; our (Stack's) Johnson-Blue Collection sale, August 2010, lot 2. Johnson-Blue Collection sale lot tag and Sydney F. Martin collector envelope with attribution and provenance notes included.

Estimate: $10000