1652 Pine Tree Shilling Need All The Info I Can Get Before I Get It Graded.

I loved your story. Christmas gift of metal detector, grandparents live in Massachusetts, buried under a half a foot of dirt on their large property, found over a year ago, and now you want to "get rid of" your grandparent's coin. You've come here to get more information.

Oh, but then you said -- "tested 100% silver".

If you send it to a third party grader they will tell you it is a copy, but I think, just perhaps, you might already suspect that.




I am far from an expert on this coin, but as far as I can tell, your coin matches no known examples of genuine pine tree shillings (and there are many). This is a frequently counterfeited, copied, and reproduced coin.

Maybe Grampa seeded the ground with some coins...

Not to sound rude if not, but what if the OP is being intentionally deceptive....

But I suppose there is the possibility of a reproduction getting buried underground as well, and him finding it.

Please send it in to get graded.

there are counterfeits from the era of this coin too... could be a 350 year old counterfeit.

Captain Jack ... Can you cite any info, a source, about conterfeits known to be that old ... 350 years?

I am not Captain Jack, but to answer your question there are 350 year old counterfeits of the Massachusetts silver coins. They are listed in the Noe reference book, and they are very collectable. They can also be certified by the major grading services as to their origin, and they are usually worth as much or more that the genuine item.

In addition to those there are copies of the Massachusetts silver coinage that were made in the 19th century. These pieces do not interest me, but there are dealers who buy and sell them. The most famous pieces were made by a man named Thomas Wyatt.

Beyond these items there are pieces of later origins that have less credibility. These pieces were either made to commemorate some event, and often only have one side that resembles a Pine Tree shilling. Others are made of base metal and were made before the passage of the Hobby Protection Act. For that reason the word "COPY" or some similar does not appear on them. They are quite detectable as copies if you know anything about how silver looks and feels.

And yes, there are counterfeits that were made to deceive collectors. These things have no merit and are a blight on the hobby.

Thanks for the info, BillJones. I'd heard of the Wyatt pieces, but I've never seen the Noe book with regard to those very early counterfeits. Indeed, considering the many auctions I've witnessed over the years, I have yet to see one of those very early counterfeits change hands.

Yes, as I was looking it up, I saw a website that talked about the Noe variants and several are listed as counterfeits. That was what I was basing my comments on. I'm mainly a guy that knows about american coinage from 1800s on up and can at least figure out if Morgans are counterfeit, but I'm not an expert.

I also dabble in foreign coinage too... my oldest coin is a 1683 or 1686 James II Threepence, and I have a 1689 James II Gunmoney shilling. But my babies are my morgans.