Official Massachusetts Bay Silver Thread- Post Your Dug Tree Coins Today!

[oxbowbarefoot]

Alright folks, it's time to show us your dug Massachusetts Bay Colony Silvers. NE, Willow Tree, Oak Tree and Pine Tree Shillings, Sixpences, Threepence and Twopence and cut coins welcome. Please feel free to tell us how you found them and in what general area. I think it would be pretty cool to start building a dug Mass Silver census. If you don't know your variety, a few of us are pretty solid with our ID's.

Bill D, Bill Ladd, Silver Tree Chaser, SteeleHeadWill, Rhode Hog, Lawsonland, BigBobBow, Silversurfer1111 and many more, I'm talkin' to you! Post 'em up!

I'll start things off. This Noe 1 Oak Tree Shilling and quarter cut Noe 5 Pine Tree shilling were found in the same field in Western Massachusetts a few days apart, both with my XP Deus.

 

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[oxbowbarefoot]

View attachment 1270137 Source: Studies on John Hull, the Mint and the Economics of Massachusetts Coinage

 

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[Ahab8]

View attachment 1270139View attachment 1270137 Source: Studies on John Hull, the Mint and the Economics of Massachusetts Coinage

Very very interesting breakdown. As IP has said in the past, if you have the sites with the correct date range you certainly have a decent chance at pulling one. I've got one spot in particular I'm very hopeful for. But we all know how expectations work in this crazy hobby. Normally when I'm super excited about a spot it's disappointing. Other times I go into a spot with no written or mapped history of settlement and I find some amazing early coins and relics. Intuition has served me extremely well so far.

 

[oxbowbarefoot]

Very very interesting breakdown. As IP has said in the past, if you have the sites with the correct date range you certainly have a decent chance at pulling one. I've got one spot in particular I'm very hopeful for. But we all know how expectations work in this crazy hobby. Normally when I'm super excited about a spot it's disappointing. Other times I go into a spot with no written or mapped history of settlement and I find some amazing early coins and relics. Intuition has served me extremely well so far.

It seems as though people traveled from all over the Eastern seaboard to consign silver to the Boston mint. Large consignments were made from individuals from Virginia, the Caribbean, and Canada. They brought silver to Boston to capitalize on the 3-pence per shilling advantage on the exchange rate (it was profitable to melt Spanish silver, or plate and have it coined into Mass silver even with minting fees). These coins had a very wide circulation. I've read about specimens recovered in England, US Virgin Islands, and all up and down the East Coast. If you're finding cobs or hammered coins, you're certainly on a site capable of producing Mass Silvers, regardless of where you are.

 

[VacantEyesBass]

Killer finds. I'm from Easthampton and I think I know the potato field in which these keep turning up. Happy hunting!

 

[Bill D. (VA)]

Just saw this thread, but this is all I can muster up ..... From a NOE-11.

 

[eyemustdigtreasure]

Mine is in way better condition :P


View attachment 1268047View attachment 1268048

Hey! Wait! ....that's a COPY, silly boy!

 

[MaineRelic]

My small contributition to this post. This pierced NOE-25, Crosby 3-A2, Salmon 3-A1 Oak tree three pence was a salt water find in what was back in that day part of Falmouth Me. MR

 

[oxbowbarefoot]

My small contributition to this post. This pierced NOE-25, Crosby 3-A2, Salmon 3-A1 Oak tree three pence was a salt water find in what was back in that day part of Falmouth Me. MR

Great find! Too bad about the hole, but it looks great for a saltwater find.

 

[oxbowbarefoot]

Killer finds. I'm from Easthampton and I think I know the potato field in which these keep turning up. Happy hunting!

Just be mindful about posting it publicly. Good luck!

 

[Rhode Hog]

I agree took some close friends to a corn field that has produced Mass tree coins for me in the past,it now looks like a bombing range with all the unfilled holes.If more than one person know about site it's no longer a secret

 

[VacantEyesBass]

Just be mindful about posting it publicly. Good luck!

oh, that information will certainly not be disseminated. Happy hunting!

 

[eyemustdigtreasure]

My small contributition to this post. This pierced NOE-25, Crosby 3-A2, Salmon 3-A1 Oak tree three pence was a salt water find in what was back in that day part of Falmouth Me. MR

Looks like it was punched with a wire nail...!
Not with a Square Nail or a Cut Nail of the period.
Wonder what it was used for after that?
Was the notch on the edge, part of that use...?
Always more questions than answers, huh?
Nice Find!

 

[oxbowbarefoot]

Dug Mass Silver #3 today! Pine Tree Threepence, Noe 36 or 37 variety.

 

[oxbowbarefoot]

My three trees, hopefully this little grove will turn into a forest soon!

 

[VacantEyesBass]

you're on fire, oxbow!! killer finds.

 

[oxbowbarefoot]

Found this interesting old article on cut Mass silver. I think it has been debunked since the advent of metal detecting (and finds by Bill Ladd, Bill D, SilverTreeChaser, myself and others), but still worth a read...

http://www.britnumsoc.org/publications/Digital BNJ/pdfs/1919_BNJ_15_12.pdf

 

[Rhode Hog]

Here are my Mass Tree Coins that I have dug over the years that I have pictures of.

 

[CASPER-2]

theyre out there
experts think there may be 40 to 75 specimens out there of the shilling varieties
less 6 pence and 3 is unique
The First Coins Struck in The Original Thirteen Colonies: Massachusetts (?NE?) Silver of 1652

 

[CASPER-2]

coin found by my friend
...one of the known originals ..

I see similarities...if you have redbook of coins - you may see similarities too

 

[Rhode Hog]

I did not

View attachment 1304834View attachment 1304836Here are my Mass Tree Coins that I have dug over the years that I have pictures ofView attachment 1304828View attachment 1304829View attachment 1304830View attachment 1304831View attachment 1304832View attachment 1304833.

I forgot to post what the coins are pine tree is noe 28,3 p's noe 26,noe27 2p noe 30