Exceedingly Rare Noe-28 Small Planchet Pine Tree Shilling
The Kendall-Robert M. Martin-Sydney F. Martin Specimen Among the Finest Known
1652 Pine Tree Shilling. Small Planchet. Noe-28, Salmon 10-D, W-920. Rarity-6+. VF-25 (PCGS).
67.7 grains. As noted when we cataloged the Picker-Hawn-Partrick-Sydney F. Martin specimen from these dies for our August 2023 Showcase Auction (lot 8200), the Kendall-Robert M. Martin-Sydney F. Martin specimen offered here is a rival for mantle of finest known for this Noe number in pure technical terms. Opinions certainly vary for this elusive and conditionally challenged variety, but this one certainly deserves to be in any discussion of the best. It is fascinating, softly struck atop obverse and reverse, but lustrous and frosty, graded Very Fine by PCGS, but technically probably as close to full Mint State as this variety comes. The surfaces are light gray with beautiful iridescent toning highlights of pale blue, gold, and peach. The luster and frost are evident on both sides, as fresh and bold as on any Pine Tree shilling, of any Noe number, graded AU or Mint State. Both sides are well centered. A long, thin vertical scratch descends through the Roman numeral X in the denomination on the reverse, extending above and below. The top of the obverse and top of the reverse are not struck up and are ill defined, though the heavy clash marks in the upper right reverse periphery are still clear to see. The natural planchet texture is still visible in those soft areas, which were likely sunken into the die as it continued to fail, reducing striking pressure. The NN60 coin and the MHS (1970) coin were weak in the same area, making it more likely a die issue than a tapered planchet or something similar. This distinctive variety is an underappreciated rarity, with fewer than 10 examples confirmed. At least two are impounded, including the high grade double struck specimen in the ANS and Joe Lasser's coin at Colonial Williamsburg. The Picker-Hawn-Partrick-Sydney F. Martin coin was rather boldly called "the finest known" in Heritage's Partrick sale, although your cataloger (JLA) feels that laurel that might better be presented to the Roper coin or, in pure technical terms, to the Kendall-Robert M. Martin-Sydney F. Martin specimen offered here. The Stearns sale lacked one; apparently the Stearns piece was acquired privately by T. James Clarke in 1937, ended up being Boyd's duplicate, and was sold in NN60. There was a pleasing, if low grade piece in our (Stack's) January 2010 Americana Sale; the Ted L. Craige Collection brought a holed and plugged VF to market through our January 2013 Americana Sale. Norweb's was offered again in Hain. The Ford piece was a very decent VF, sharper in some areas than seen here, but softer elsewhere. Heritage's recent sales of the Salmon Collection have brought a few others to light, including the specimen that later sold in our November 2023 sale of the Muddy River Collection, lot 2058. The Noe-28 Pine Tree is certainly a challenging variety in terms of both rarity and quality of the extant examples, and the collector would have a difficult time obtaining a markedly nicer one than this.
PCGS# 914822. NGC ID: 2ARZ.
From the Sydney F. Martin Collection. Earlier ex Lester Merkin, January 1978; our sale of the Henry P. Kendall Foundation Collection, March 2015 Baltimore Auction, lot 2413; our sale of the Robert M. Martin Collection, November 2019 Baltimore Auction, lot 5046.