Choice Massachusetts Bay Colony Threepence

Sale: Triton X, Lot: 1172. Estimate $5000.  Closing Date: Monday, 8 January 2007.  Sold For $3500. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

UNITED STATES, Colonial. Massachusetts Bay Colony. AR "1652" Threepence (0.91 g, 12h). MASATHVSETS IN, oak tree within beaded circle / NEW ENGLAND (six pellets), 1652 III in two lines within beaded circle. Noe 24 = Wurtzbach 29 = John J. Ford Collection (Part XII, Stacks, 18 October 2005), lot 55 (same dies); Cr. 2-A1 (same dies). VF, wavy flan, slightly rough areas with patchy toning. Very rare. This piece is comparable to the Ford specimen.

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 improved only 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 contract 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 Under Governor Sir Edmund Andros in 1686 the Massachusetts Bay charter was revoked, primarily on the grounds of treason for usurping the royal coining monopoly.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, and the surviving coins were jealously hoarded.