1652 Pine Tree Shilling. Large Planchet. Noe-8.2, Salmon 7-E, W-740. Rarity-4. Ligatured NE in Legend. MS-63 (NGC).71.0 grains. The ownership of a Large Planchet Pine Tree shilling has always been a badge of distinction. For many, such pieces typify early American coinage at its most historic. Asked what their one favorite American coin is, Ken Bressett, Dave Bowers, and the late Louis E. Eliasberg each said, "the 1652 Massachusetts Pine Tree shilling." <p><p>The offered piece is a truly exceptional Pine Tree shilling. It was offered as lot 96 in Part XII of our (Stacks) sales of the John J. Ford, Jr. Collection, where it was a non-certified coin very conservatively graded "Choice EF" and where it realized $18,000 at the hammer. The certified Choice Mint State grade is seemingly in line with the strong price paid in 2005. The golden-gray surfaces are as smooth as a collector will ever find for the design type, and they exhibit soft luster throughout. There is a faint wave to the wide and well-formed planchet, the result of the rocker dies used to strike Noe-8 and other Pine Tree shilling varieties. All of the peripheral dentils are present on both sides save for a few above HV on the obverse. The beaded circles on both sides are full and bold, though two of the beads immediately below the second S are weak. Retrograde N at IN, first T weak at left side, cud at base of tree just forming. Reverse with cud at GL that also engages the beaded circle, A of ENGLAND apparently without serif, crumbling at ND, cud at OM and attached to dentils, faint spidery die cracks within inner beaded circle around date, NE of NEW as one letter. Diagnostics of the Noe-8 variety include a small cud forming at the base of the pine tree, a noticeably split tree trunk, the retrograde N and monogram NE, and the reverse cuds noted above.<p><p>The overall quality of the present piece is the visual and physical equivalent, to our eyes, of the Wurtzbach-Ford specimen we (Stacks) sold in October 2005 (Ford XII, lot 94), that piece called "Gem Uncirculated" by the writer (Michael Hodder, who was founder in 1993 of the Colonial Coin Collectors Club). That coin, however, has nothing on the present beauty. Indeed, if we were to match the Noe-8 offered here with just about any example currently known, we feel this specimen would still finish high in the quality and eye appeal departments. For comparison, the present piece is considerably finer to us than many of the "name" EF coins that were in the collections of Norweb, Picker, and Roper, or the other EF piece in the Ford Collection. It is also physically and aesthetically finer than the other Ford Uncirculated Noe-8 (XII:95). We suggest that this specimen will long be remembered as one of the finest examples of Noe-8 to cross the auction block in recent memory.<p><p>Ex F.C.C. Boyd; our (Stacks) sale of the John J. Ford, Jr. Collection, Part XII, October 2005, lot 96; our Chicago ANA Sale of August 2014, lot 13004.
