1652 Pine Tree Shilling. Large Planchet. Noe-9, Salmon 7a-Diii, W-750. Rarity-6. Without Pellets at Trunk, Reversed N. VF-30 (PCGS).70.8 grains. A handsome example of this scarce variety displaying slate-grey tones with an overlay of golden highlights. The planchet is nearly full weight and pleasantly round, with just a trivial irregularity at the bottom edge. A few minor indentations are scattered on the left side of the obverse but these go unnoticed to the naked eye. Two minor creases run parallel along the vertical axis, causing an uneven wear pattern that is typical of this issue. The tree is largely complete and bold, as is most of MASATHVSETS. The reverse is somewhat smooth along the left border, gaining in sharpness towards the middle including a bold date and denomination. Nicely aligned overall and showing a slight pull towards 9 oclock on the reverse. This is an important example that was once in the collection of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History located in Pittsburgh, PA. Selections from this collection were sold by Spink in March 1983, where this piece was offered in lot 6. <p>The Noe-9 variety is deceptively scarce in all grades and was missing from Stearns, Garrett, Picker (1984) and other notable collections. Partricks was Hains nice duplicate. The Lasser coin at Colonial Williamsburg is a fascinating flip-over double strike. Only one specimen of Noe-9 appeared in our (Stacks) Ford XII sale, the other Boyd coin selling in NN60 in 1968. As noted in the Hain sale and repeated in Ford XII, "the real rarity of Noe 9 may still be underestimated even at R-6." We offered the finest known example certified MS-62 (PCGS) in our March 2015 sale of the Kendall Foundation Collection, where it brought $30, 550. Trying to find 15 different examples of this variety might be an impossible challenge. This particular one has an important tie to numismatic history and should command a strong bid. <p>From the Robert M. Martin Collection. Ex Carnegie Museum of Natural History; Spink and Sons sale of March 1983, lot 6.
