Undated (1850s) Good Samaritan / Oak Tree Shilling Muling. Dies by Thomas Wyatt. Noe-GO, W-14092. Silver. MS-62 (PCGS).This exceptional Mint State Wyatt muling looks as fine as it must have appeared on the day it was created. The sandy-gray surfaces are alive with softly glowing luster and whispers of pale gold and apricot iridescence. The obverse features a near-perfect rendition of an Oak Tree shilling, the reverse with the Good Samaritan of Biblical times aiding the beggar by the wayside, the Samaritan standing near his horse, the beggar seated with tree behind, all within a circle, IN MASATHVSETS around. Reverse die break from 6 oclock on the rim upward across the seated beggar then out to the rim through the second A, scribe line for legend plainly seen. No marks of any measure can be found on either side no matter how diligent the search. Obverse border tight to the tops of IN MASATHVSETS, intruding on a few letters at the 5 to 7 oclock position. Reverse evenly centered and boldly struck. We have difficulty imagining a finer example of this famous Wyatt concoction, and once the present specimen sells, it may be a long time before we see another in any grade.<p>Thomas Wyatt was a denizen of New York City at the time these copies were made, living then on Mercer Street circa 1840-1860. Mention of his "coins" first surfaced in 1856 in the June 16 edition of the <em>Boston Journal</em>. It was there reported that numerous NE shillings and sixpence were found in a bottle in Chelsea, Massachusetts, nearby to Boston, along with a 1652 Oak Tree twopence and a Pine Tree penny, both fantasies with no like pieces in the regular Massachusetts Bay coinage pantheon. A letter to the editor of the <em>Journal</em> a few weeks later from one "Nummus" - thought to be Jeremiah Colburn, a leading numismatic scholar from the Boston area - disparaged the coins as fakes. Wyatt either made or had made a dozen "sets" of his stylistic fantasies, including the NE shilling, NE sixpence, Oak Tree shilling and twopence, Pine Tree sixpence and pence, and Good Samaritan shilling. He had only seen illustrations of Massachusetts Bay Colony coins, and those had lines in the fields to show shading; Wyatts copies included the shading lines feature in his finished product which easily distinguishes them today. The Wyatt dies were later acquired by Edwin Bishop of 9 Dutch Street in New York City who struck a few more "sets" including pieces in copper and a unique shilling with the Good Samaritan obverse and a shilling reverse overstruck on an English gold guinea.Collector envelope with attribution notation included.
