1652 Massachusetts Oak Tree Shilling! And other colonial goodies. My best hunt ever!

[oxbowbarefoot]

Today was by far by far my best detecting yet! I started detecting around 6am and right off the bat I scored 4 Indian cents in a row. Nice way to begin a marathon day of detecting. On my first return pass, I found a Draped Bust cent and a Connecticut Copper within 5 feet of each other. Another 100ft down the pass I spotted my first Indian Axe Head, which made my day! Soon after, Broken Knee arrived for a while. He made a few cool finds and decided to head to a different part of the site. I decided to stay and finish out the area I had been working. Boy am I glad did. My Deus gave me a real solid sweet sound and began to dig. I flipped the plug, grabbed some dirt and ran it over my coil. It was in my hand. I broke open the clump of dirt to see the beautiful color of old silver looking back at me, with the clear as day date of 1652! I couldn't believe it, my second Massachusetts Colonial Silver in less than a week from the same site! At first I thought it was a Pine Tree Shilling, but once I rinsed it with a little water, the Oak Tree emerged. This is by far my best coin I have ever found. I am still in shock. Does anyone know the variety?

 

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[Iron Patch]

Iron Patch, Thanks again for the ID! I think this one I will send out to get slabbed
Broken Knee took the pic, so you'd have to ask him

I can't blame you there, although it would still bug me having a less than positive comment on the holder, which it will likely have. But given how good it looks no one will probably notice what it says!

 

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[johnnyblaze]

That is my dream find man

Congrats..Banner is in

Blaze

 

[worldtalker]

By dang Jason,that is some find now,ended your vacation right nice,man that's a NICE coin!!! Congrats! GodBless Chris

 

[AC1955]

Really, really superb finds!!! Banner for sure.

HH,
Anita

 

[Broken knee]

Yeah sure seems to be NOE-1. Rarity 3.

It says there's three coins total that share that obverse... NOE-2 which is definitely not a match, and the text from the link I posted says the 3rd is quite different, so that only leaves NOE-1.


PS: Did you purposely take the pic with the tree over your shoulder?

IP I took the pic never noticed the tree I couldn't take my eye off the coin! HH
BK

 

[FriscoT06]

WOW that is a nice shilling! CONGRATS! Also, is it just me, or is there some wording carved into that axe?

 

[Silver Searcher]

Stunning coin...it don't get much better than that for you guys...Banner. And I susspect they will be more to come from that site.

SS

 

[JohnChase1989]

You lucky dog! Great find my friend. Great find indeed..

 

[oxbowbarefoot]

Thank you everyone for the Banner support! Here are some pictures of the two Mass Silvers together!

 

[artyfacts]

A very good day in silver paradise... Banner

 

[hogge]

I thought there was someone at my house on Friday that said they would probably NEVER find a full Ma. Silver! UNBELIEVABLE! Should see this coin up top today! CONGRATS! Todd

 

[CMDiamonddawg]

Banner vote is in , a Dream Find of mega proportions , grooved stone axe is also a top shelf Mass . artifact . I have family up in the Boston area , so to all up there , stay Boston Strong and in the words of Big Papi , " This is our town " .... Big Congrats

dawg

 

[rock]

Cool stone and coin all in one day.

 

[HEAVYMETALNUT]

whoa! i sooo wanna dig one of those bad boys! CONGRATS man!

 

[PeteWmass]

funny...I always thought the next one would turn up in Hatfield....or Easthampton..as that is where they have been found before...some must have been found down in the meadows before....though possibly long ago...I had been detecting down there the last 10 years or so...I never saw anybody else detecting until a few years ago....but to hear the old-timers talk ...they did "all the fields".....(not that you can ever "do" a field)...most of the stories are wildly apocryphal anyways...the NE shilling (the one that just says NE on one side..and roman numerals on the other) - was definitely found in a potato field in Easthampton...and I know someone who knows that person...Northampton has never come up in any of these tales Ive heard.....regarding tree-coins...but there is some tale of a small cannon being dug up behind the bowling alley (and other weird/early things) where the fort was...not sure how much of that is true (though the fact they dumped a ton of fill/dirt up there does raise questions) - Hadley mostly comes up in the "piles of coppers" type stories about detecting in the commons in the 70s - think someone would have mentioned a tree-coin - - one guy I found to possibly be a BS artist says he found "a bunch of shillings" in the center of Amherst....which could be true if he found some British coins that some college student dropped (he only said "shillings"...I noticed..like maybe he heard me talking about Pine Tree shillings and thought I was talking UK coins....which is possible if he never had heard of tree-coins...which would definitely make him a BS artist...he mostly talked about finding jewelery in ponds......) -anyways - center of Amherst wasn't there until mid 1700s...so Im really thinking that is false.....Hatfield has had great early things turn up (Ive found nipple buttons..a blow-hole button....etc) -so the age is there..the only really good story Ive been able to pin down (Ive met the guy) was the 1600s gold inscribed mourning ring that was found back there -he sold that at Sotheby's or something like that -so I bet a couple tree-coins may have came out of there.....some of the fields I believe have never been detecting....as trying to get a couple farmers' permission back there is impossible.....one nice farmer told me of the time the bank washed out somewhere long ago and he found a Native American burial (read articles in old newspapers about that one.....so that is true) - that field associated with that stretch of river is very very sparse.....
anyways...I could go on and on...we should brainstorm - -
given your luck...you should go in search of a Higley copper next.....heh...something Ive wanted to give a try....have to go down to CT for that......
one added idea - all that digging around where Rt 10 crosses the Manhan in Easthampton (doing a bridge replacement soon) - parts of that are called "Kings Highway" for a reason - that is an original 1600s highway (at various points at least) - seems like if the original crossing was anywhere around there....might be good --of course...being near rt 10.....there will be a ton of trash.....but....if they are getting into deeper layers.....who knows.......
Ill have to get out before they turn the corn over.........keep up the good work!

 

[Deepdiger60]

How that is a really great Colonial hunt nothing better then 360 year old American silver !! Banner for sure Congrats Jim

 

[Deepdiger60]

funny...I always thought the next one would turn up in Hatfield....or Easthampton..as that is where they have been found before...some must have been found down in the meadows before....though possibly long ago...I had been detecting down there the last 10 years or so...I never saw anybody else detecting until a few years ago....but to hear the old-timers talk ...they did "all the fields".....(not that you can ever "do" a field)...most of the stories are wildly apocryphal anyways...the NE shilling (the one that just says NE on one side..and roman numerals on the other) - was definitely found in a potato field in Easthampton...and I know someone who knows that person...Northampton has never come up in any of these tales Ive heard.....regarding tree-coins...but there is some tale of a small cannon being dug up behind the bowling alley (and other weird/early things) where the fort was...not sure how much of that is true (though the fact they dumped a ton of fill/dirt up there does raise questions) - Hadley mostly comes up in the "piles of coppers" type stories about detecting in the commons in the 70s - think someone would have mentioned a tree-coin - - one guy I found to possibly be a BS artist says he found "a bunch of shillings" in the center of Amherst....which could be true if he found some British coins that some college student dropped (he only said "shillings"...I noticed..like maybe he heard me talking about Pine Tree shillings and thought I was talking UK coins....which is possible if he never had heard of tree-coins...which would definitely make him a BS artist...he mostly talked about finding jewelery in ponds......) -anyways - center of Amherst wasn't there until mid 1700s...so Im really thinking that is false.....Hatfield has had great early things turn up (Ive found nipple buttons..a blow-hole button....etc) -so the age is there..the only really good story Ive been able to pin down (Ive met the guy) was the 1600s gold inscribed mourning ring that was found back there -he sold that at Sotheby's or something like that -so I bet a couple tree-coins may have came out of there.....some of the fields I believe have never been detecting....as trying to get a couple farmers' permission back there is impossible.....one nice farmer told me of the time the bank washed out somewhere long ago and he found a Native American burial (read articles in old newspapers about that one.....so that is true) - that field associated with that stretch of river is very very sparse.....
anyways...I could go on and on...we should brainstorm - -
given your luck...you should go in search of a Higley copper next.....heh...something Ive wanted to give a try....have to go down to CT for that......
one added idea - all that digging around where Rt 10 crosses the Manhan in Easthampton (doing a bridge replacement soon) - parts of that are called "Kings Highway" for a reason - that is an original 1600s highway (at various points at least) - seems like if the original crossing was anywhere around there....might be good --of course...being near rt 10.....there will be a ton of trash.....but....if they are getting into deeper layers.....who knows.......
Ill have to get out before they turn the corn over.........keep up the good work!

Pete i have hunted that potato field in EH and came out with a 1621 silver cob last year so who knows what was missed yet each turn of the plow . Jim

 

[granthansen]

 

[oxbowbarefoot]

funny...I always thought the next one would turn up in Hatfield....or Easthampton..as that is where they have been found before...some must have been found down in the meadows before....though possibly long ago...I had been detecting down there the last 10 years or so...I never saw anybody else detecting until a few years ago....but to hear the old-timers talk ...they did "all the fields".....(not that you can ever "do" a field)...most of the stories are wildly apocryphal anyways...the NE shilling (the one that just says NE on one side..and roman numerals on the other) - was definitely found in a potato field in Easthampton...and I know someone who knows that person...Northampton has never come up in any of these tales Ive heard.....regarding tree-coins...but there is some tale of a small cannon being dug up behind the bowling alley (and other weird/early things) where the fort was...not sure how much of that is true (though the fact they dumped a ton of fill/dirt up there does raise questions) - Hadley mostly comes up in the "piles of coppers" type stories about detecting in the commons in the 70s - think someone would have mentioned a tree-coin - - one guy I found to possibly be a BS artist says he found "a bunch of shillings" in the center of Amherst....which could be true if he found some British coins that some college student dropped (he only said "shillings"...I noticed..like maybe he heard me talking about Pine Tree shillings and thought I was talking UK coins....which is possible if he never had heard of tree-coins...which would definitely make him a BS artist...he mostly talked about finding jewelery in ponds......) -anyways - center of Amherst wasn't there until mid 1700s...so Im really thinking that is false.....Hatfield has had great early things turn up (Ive found nipple buttons..a blow-hole button....etc) -so the age is there..the only really good story Ive been able to pin down (Ive met the guy) was the 1600s gold inscribed mourning ring that was found back there -he sold that at Sotheby's or something like that -so I bet a couple tree-coins may have came out of there.....some of the fields I believe have never been detecting....as trying to get a couple farmers' permission back there is impossible.....one nice farmer told me of the time the bank washed out somewhere long ago and he found a Native American burial (read articles in old newspapers about that one.....so that is true) - that field associated with that stretch of river is very very sparse.....
anyways...I could go on and on...we should brainstorm - -
given your luck...you should go in search of a Higley copper next.....heh...something Ive wanted to give a try....have to go down to CT for that......
one added idea - all that digging around where Rt 10 crosses the Manhan in Easthampton (doing a bridge replacement soon) - parts of that are called "Kings Highway" for a reason - that is an original 1600s highway (at various points at least) - seems like if the original crossing was anywhere around there....might be good --of course...being near rt 10.....there will be a ton of trash.....but....if they are getting into deeper layers.....who knows.......
Ill have to get out before they turn the corn over.........keep up the good work!

Pete,
Great info. I'm working on securing permission for some land in Easthampton, but I think I'll pound the Northampton site until they plant. At this point, I just have no reason to detect anywhere else I would love to try to track down a Higley, I have a few places in Southwick I may be able to get permission to detect. We should absolutely get together to hunt and share ideas.
-Ox

 

[Argentium]

Wow , I'm a little late to the BANNER party , but you got my vote too - just amazing site - miraculous finds !