Dug a quarter-cut 1652 Mass. Pine tree shilling

[Bill Ladd]

Played host for my huntin' buddies from SC. including fellow videographer, SC Digger Greg from "Saving History" & his hunting buddy Russ. Save some New England history is exactly what we all did! They were hoping to maybe take a Colonial copper home, but if you look at SC Digger's post they flew home with lots more! The weekend started at the infamous button dump, then we got permission to a Colonial farm house & all cleaned up on the coins! I saw lots of silver, including one Reales, 1/2 Reales, Capped Half dimes, Large cents, etc. I wasn't finding much until I put my coil over a this rare quarter-cut 1652 Mass. Pine tree shilling
Gutta love a piece of New England colonial history & how change was made. These pics don't do it justice. The coin details are alot nicer than these crappy phone pics show. I'll try to get better close ups with my real camera down the road....
.
Thanks for looking,
Bill

 

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[Bubba65]

Awesome find Bill and it sounds like everyone tore it up, which makes it even better Congrats

Bubba65

 

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[WHADIFIND]

I wasn't finding much until I put my coil over a this rare quarter-cut 1652 Mass. Pine tree shilling

Bill

Awesome finds!

I just gotta ask, what sort of signal did that little slip of history give you?!? Was it deep? Among other junk? How deep?

I find that just fascinating!

HH!

 

[CRUSADER]

 

[detroitdigger]

Awesome find, those do not come by very often, I vote banner!!!!!!!

 

[CMDiamonddawg]

nice find I never saw a threepenny bit of a Mass shilling your 'bob' has been cut to a ' joey' , (threepence) (3d) silver

 

[DMN]

Well, the pics do do the cut justice. The detail is solid. Would have been amazing if it had been a whole coin. But I would be above cloud nine if I found that snip. Well done.

 

[ClovisOak]

Awesome find, Congrats!

 

[Iron Patch]

With a coin like that it's pretty easy to put a positive spin on the fact it's cut. It's the third piece I've seen posted, at least that I can recall, so seems like it was not a rare practice.

 

[jerseyben]

Ok, now that is cool! Congrats!

 

[jeff of pa]

With a coin like that it's pretty easy to put a positive spin on the fact it's cut. It's the third piece I've seen posted, at least that I can recall, so seems like it was not a rare practice.

I'm guessing Paymasters did much more Cutting then stores & customers did.
value wise, I doubt they have any real value. Historic value is in the collectors and historians eye.

 

[Don in SJ]

Bill, Very big congrats on the finds and taking the boys to a great spot to hunt. I checked the C4 Newsletter, since I remembered that my friend Wayne found one here in NJ and sure enough, in his C4 Newsletter article from Winter of 2003 "Survey of Colonial Coins Recovered in Southern New Jersey" he lists "MA cut 1/4 silver shilling (Pine Tree)". So I guess along with a few others reported found that they were cut for "change" just like the Spanish Silver was. Great find, hope to hear back from some of my friends on more information for you.

Don

 

[Bill Ladd]

Thanks for all the responses! I forgot to mention that both me & SC digger captured it's recovery on video! This may be the first Mass. Silver piece dug on camera? I'll be putting the clip on YouTube soon!
HH,
Bill

 

[Iron Patch]

Bill, Very big congrats on the finds and taking the boys to a great spot to hunt. I checked the C4 Newsletter, since I remembered that my friend Wayne found one here in NJ and sure enough, in his C4 Newsletter article from Winter of 2003 "Survey of Colonial Coins Recovered in Southern New Jersey" he lists "MA cut 1/4 silver shilling (Pine Tree)". So I guess along with a few others reported found that they were cut for "change" just like the Spanish Silver was. Great find, hope to hear back from some of my friends on more information for you.

Don

Think "Woody Copper" from MA found a cut piece too quite a few years back. Bill, you no doubt know him being right next door.

C.C.




Edit: Yes he did, here's the pic. Found in 2003.

 

[Bavaria Mike]

Nice quarter you found Bill, the Pine Tree Schilling is one of those most sought after American coins and interesting that they never changed the mint date! I saw a few of your videos on Youtube, good stuff. Do you ever see Jon or Ted from our trip to the UK? I'm doing well here in Germany, two gold coins this year and lots of other goodies. Take care and HH, Mike

 

[Bill Ladd]

Hi Mike, great to hear from ya & congrats on the gold! Yes, I see John & Ted all the time...John is one of the diggers in our "mill community bottle dig" on YouTube. In fact, he joined us at the site I got the cut tree & bagged a nice Half Cent....
HH,
Bill

 

[flyinryan2]

Awesome! Very cool.

 

[HEAVYMETALNUT]

awesome hunt Bill.the other guys found some amazing stuff too! congrats!

 

[ringfinder]

Great Finds and Great Friends, Congrats Bill, see you in a few days. It's always great to talk to you and watch you Diggin in Va., I can't wait to hear the up East Laugh of yours!!!

HH,
Denny (Ringfinder)

 

[davis1957]

Hi Bill. I watched your video on you tube and when I saw how excited you got I wondered about the rareness of a coin I dug in Gosport, Hampshire, UK in 2011. I researched it and found it is a complete Pine tree threepence dated 1652 bearing the legend NEW ENGLAND with 1652 III inside a circle of pellets on one side and MASATHVSETS on the other with a pine tree inside a circle of pellets. It has been pierced with a small hole back in the day which I have heard was done to hang round the neck as a charm to ward off witches. Salem was not far away from where the coin was minted in what is now Boston Massachusetts and the witch trials took place not long after this coin was minted between 1667 and 1674. I might have to find out its value as it doesn't really fit in with the other coins I have found and I might be able to upgrade my detector if I sell it.
Great find Bill. I'll watch out for you on You Tube. Regards Les