1652 Oak Tree Threepence Found Buried...

Thanks for sharing the story.

The UK already has far too many interesting metal detecting finds. They shouldn't take them from the U.S.!

You do wonder, although we'll never know, how it ended up in that field.

I'd be willing to bet that merchants accepted coinage based on metal content and weight more than the denomination; of a non-local coin.

Beautiful coin! Definitely brought over via vessel by someone. I am willing to bet it was more of a curiosity piece rather than meant as money.
It appears to have been lost soon after arriving otherwise I'd expect to see some wear. Noe-23 and I'm expecting high 5 figures come hammer time maybe 6 as these are fairly elusive.

No expertise on the coin ... simply acknowledging the outstanding news of this find.

David

I agree probably someone that acquired this in the normal mode of commerce while traveling to the new world, and just brought it home as a souvenir.




Depending on which Noe variety it is (I'm no expert on the series at all), it could be one of the super rare varieties possibly? It does seem to be one of the "IN" varieties. I don't have the rare Noe book in my library yet, I've been watching for an inexpensive copy.

Looks like an Oak tree. The tree on the images of Willow tree coins I have seen is a lot more abstract.

The Massachusetts General Court established a standard of 72 grains of .925 fine sterling silver to the shilling, smaller denoms followed this standard, which represented a 22.5% reduction of the English standard of 92.9 grains per shilling.
Commerce on the home isles surely wouldn't accept this coinage at face.
none the less, another example of Mass silvers wide distribution and popularity in its era.

I know this is a really old thread, but I've been working on cataloging St. James and Baldwin's Auction catalogs in my library (seeing this one jogged my memory) and I remembered making a post about this coin when I came across the catalog. Thought I'd update it finally and give the thread some closure...

(yep almost a decade later).

Here is the full description from St. James & Knightsbridge Coins catalogue (UK spelling mode activated).


The coin was featured and mentioned in the front of the catalogue as the cover coin front and center.


Coin did NOT sell for $1.2 million as we discussed in the thread, it was actually quite the bargain selling at £5,200 + 20% so in USD that comes out to $7,756 today + S&H so maybe add another $30 or so. (That's about what they charged me on my last auction winnings to ship to the USA signed and insured).

I found it interesting that it sold for so little after being hyped online and in the press in the UK. I'm sure it would have done better if it had been sold in the USA. There was also a nice 1799 US Silver dollar that looked like a high end AU which sold for £9,000 or about $13,500 in the same sale. Those two coins were some of the highest priced items in the sale.

One more note, for those that are not familiar with Knightsbridge Coins, that is Stephen Fenton's company, he is the guy that was caught selling/brokering the 1933 St. Gaudens double eagle gold coin. He was exonerated and the coin became the only legal example to own. (side note: I was in his shop in London with the 1933 in the safe, of course I didn't know that at the time, but I was closer to it than most before it was publicly known).