Sale: Triton VI, Lot: 1300. Estimate $2000.  Closing Date: Monday, 13 January 2003.  Sold For $3400. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

UNITED STATES, Massachusetts Bay Colony. AR "1652" Shilling (4.63 gm). Large Pine Tree issue, struck 1667-1674. MASATHVSETS IN, pine tree in beaded circle / NEW ENGLAND AN DOM, 1652 XII in beaded circle. Breen 42; Noe 6. Late state of both dies, with obverse die re-cut at top and reverse with die flaws. VF, with light scratches on obverse, mostly covered by fine mellow toning, slightly wavy flan. Legends almost complete, with only the N of NEW not really clear. ($2000) 

From the Clifford H. DeWitt Collection.

Massachusetts and the other colonies had always suffered from the mercantilist policies of the British crown, which ensured a strict one-way trade arrangement, with all goods exported to England and restrictions on the importation of specie. After the execution of Charles I in 1649 and the final defeat of the Royalists two years later, the General Court of Massachusetts Bay Colony took advantage of the political void and contracted with John Hull and Robert Saunderson to produce a silver coinage for local use. Over the next 30 years Hull produced five series of coins for the colony, all prudently dated 1652. The first coins were crude hand-struck creations. Production methods only improving after 1660, when a proper screw press was put into production. In addition, the coins always suffered from poor die preparation, with the dies having to be constantly reworked to keep them in use. Nonetheless, the Massachusetts coinage saw extensive circulation in New England and Canada. Minting finally ended with the expiration of Hull's final contact in 1682 and his death the following year. Under Governor Sir Edmund Andros in 1686 the Massachusetts Bay charter was revoked, primarily on the grounds of treason for usurping the royal coining monopoly. The economy reverted to its former state of barter transactions, with the surviving coins jealously hoarded. Coins recovered from the wreck of HMS Feversham proved that quantities of Massachusetts Pine Tree shillings were still obtainable at the outbreak of the Revolutionary War.