"1650" Shilling Pine Tree - Gletchell Fantasy

Coin Details

Auction Record

$2,280 AU50 11-30-2021 Stack's Bowers

Description

A fantasy piece depicting a Pine Tree Shilling dated "1650," produced by Gletchell. This is an anachronistic creation, as the Pine Tree design was not introduced until 1667 (with the standard fictitious date of 1652 used on genuine pieces). The use of "1650" — two years before even the conventional date — marks this as an obvious fantasy that makes no attempt to match any genuine Pine Tree die variety. The Massachusetts colonial mint established by John Hull in 1652 used the same date on all its products to maintain the pretense that coinage had begun before the Restoration of Charles II in 1660, which reasserted royal prerogative over colonial minting. The earliest actual coinage used the simple "NE" design, followed by the Willow Tree and then the Oak Tree designs, before the Pine Tree series began around 1667. A Pine Tree Shilling dated "1650" is therefore doubly impossible: the mint did not exist in 1650, and the Pine Tree design would not be introduced for another 17 years. Gletchell's fantasy embraces this impossibility openly, creating a numismatic curiosity that would have amused collectors familiar with the history of the Massachusetts mint. The piece reproduces the general Pine Tree Shilling design — the iconic pine tree and "XII" denomination — but with the deliberately wrong date. The Gletchell fantasy Pine Tree Shilling is a scarce and unusual piece that appeals to collectors of numismatic oddities and to specialists in Massachusetts colonial coinage who appreciate the humor and creativity of the impossible date.

Rarity Notes

Rare. Gletchell fantasy pieces were produced in limited quantities and the "1650" date makes this a distinctive numismatic curiosity.

Cross References

Gletchell Fantasy series; Original: Pine Tree Shilling 1652 (1667-1682); Noe reference: Massachusetts Silver Coinage