1652 Oak Tree Sixpence. Noe-17.5, Salmon-Unlisted, W-370. Rarity-8. IN on Obverse. Extremely Fine, Environmental Damage. 30.0 grains. A fantastic new discovery in the Massachusetts silver series of a coin that for many decades was known by just a single example. Noe-17.5 is an intermediate, heavily reworked state of this die pair, falling in between the Noe-17 "Hydra Tree" variety and the extremely rare Noe-18. While it was technically the same dies used to coin all three, the extent of the reworking of the detail and the considerably different appearance of each makes them of interest to specialists as essentially distinct varieties and they are collected as such. The previously known example of Noe-17.5 traces its history back to Carl Wurtzbach who purchased the coin from Thomas Elder in 1935 and it is pictured in the Wurtzbach photo album of Massachusetts silver coins. It then went on to T. James Clarke and F.C.C. Boyd, but its status as a distinct and new state of the Noe-17, Crosby 4-C variety wasnt fully realized until its appearance in New Netherlands 60th Sale of December 1968, where Walter Breen described the diagnostics as follows: <p>"Unlisted. "Noe 17.5." Dies of Crosby 4-C, after drastic clashing and reworking to restore details, and after a second worse clashing, but before reworking to make Noe 18. MASATHVSETS (: ?) (I)N:, wide V over small V, three trunk lines and coarse cross-hatchings to tree, rather than two lines and fine cross-hatchings as seen on Noe 17, 17.1; form now similar to Noe 23, 25. Rev. (NEW)ENGLAND:ANDOM (. ?), date very high, no colon after AN, large A over small A in ANDOM, beaded circles and letters reworked."<p>This remarkable new example was found metal detecting 13 years ago and cherished by its finder until now. The dusky gray surfaces are finely granular, as is to be expected after ground burial, but there is no heavy roughness or additional damage to detract from the appearance. Large planchet split at 6 oclock relative to the obverse and a smaller one at 7 oclock, both as made. Dies are rotated 90 degrees CCW as seems to be the case on all other examples of Noe-17, 17.5, and 18. Some microscopic tooling scratches are noted around the tree and some of the reverse letters and numerals, but are only visible under strong magnification. The detail is quite sharp throughout, practically unworn, and it appears this coin circulated little if at all. The tree is full and bold, as are the vast majority of the legends with just slight weakness at the right side obverse due to strike. All of the diagnostics that define the variety are fully appreciable and show more definition at the lower obverse and opposing right side of the reverse than does the original discovery coin. Needless to say, here is an exciting opportunity for advanced Massachusetts silver collectors -- the chance to add to their cabinets an excellent representative of a nearly unobtainable variety.<p>
