1652 Shilling Pine Tree, Noe-8 MS(PCGS#890971)

August 2023 Global Showcase Auction U.S. Coins

拍卖行

Stack's Bowers

批号

8179

等级

MS63

价格

314,571

详细说明

Stunning Choice Mint State Noe-8 Pine Tree Among the Very Finest Known 1652 Pine Tree Shilling. Large Planchet. Noe-8, Salmon 7-E, W-740. Rarity-4. Ligatured NE In Legend. MS-63 (PCGS). 71.8 grains. Outstanding quality for a Noe-8, a simply lovely example, and nearly unimprovable. Both the obverse and reverse are spectacularly toned with iridescent rose, powder blue, lilac and champagne-apricot undertones to light silver-olive patina. The underlying color scheme is particularly dramatic when the coin is tiled into a light. The tree on the obverse is clear and sharp, the split trunk bold, and some root structure can still be seen despite die failure in that area. In the peripheral legend some of the letters on the left are soft, but those on the right are sharp, and all are present on the flan and fully legible. On the reverse, the denomination and date are sharp, the inner beaded border is bold, and the letters in the legend around are fully legible despite the fact that they are beginning to fail due to die breakage in places. There is considerable original mint luster and frost, the fields bright and attractive. There are no marks or other blemishes of note, the planchet only minimally out of round, and gently so at that. The overall quality of the present piece is the visual and physical equivalent, to your cataloger's (JLA's) eyes, of the Wurtzbach-Ford:94 coin that preceded it by one lot in our (Stack's) October 2005 Ford XII sale, that piece called "Gem Uncirculated" by the writer (Michael Hodder, who was founder in 1993 of the Colonial Coin Collectors Club). The primary Ford coin, however, has nothing on the present beauty. Indeed, if we were to match the Noe-8 offered here with just about any example currently known, we feel this specimen would still finish high in the quality and eye appeal departments. For comparison, the present piece is considerably finer to us than many of the "name" EF coins that were in the collections of Norweb (one later went to Hain, see next lot), Picker, and Roper, as well as the Choice EF Ford:97 piece. The best of Stearns' two was an AU. This is also physically and aesthetically finer (again, in your cataloger's eyes) than Ford:96, conservatively graded as Choice Extremely Fine in Ford XII, but realizing a strong $18,000 at the podium and later appearing in our 2014 and 2018 ANA sales as NGC MS-63. We suggest that this specimen, carefully selected by Syd Martin, will long be regarded as one of the finest examples of Noe-8 in numismatic hands. Provenance: From the Sydney F. Martin Collection. Earlier ex F.C.C. Boyd; John J. Ford, Jr.; our (Stack's) sale of the John J. Ford, Jr. Collection, Part XII, October 2005, lot 95; Lawrence R. Stack Collection, November 2006. Collector envelope and tag with attribution notes included. To view supplemental information and all items from the Sydney F. Martin Collection, click here. PCGS# 890971. NGC ID: 2ARY. Click here for certification details from PCGS.