Oak Tree Wyatt Copies

About This Coin

Manufactured by John Wyatt during the nineteenth century, the Oak Tree Wyatt Copies reproduce the distinctive Oak Tree coinage series that the Massachusetts Bay Colony authorized in 1660 as a successor to the earlier Willow Tree designs. The original Oak Tree coins — struck at the Hull-Sanderson mint in Boston and bearing the date 1652 regardless of actual year of production to maintain a legal fiction about when the coinage authority was granted — rank among the most desirable colonial American coins, with genuine examples commanding five- and six-figure prices for better-preserved specimens. Wyatt's copies were produced during the mid-nineteenth century when the growing American numismatic community generated demand for colonial coins that far exceeded the supply of genuine examples. The copies reproduce the essential design elements of the Oak Tree coinage: a stylized oak tree on the obverse surrounded by the inscription MASATHVSETS IN, and the denomination and date on the reverse within a double circle inscription reading NEW ENGLAND AN DOM. While Wyatt's die work is competent and captures the general aesthetic of the originals, experienced colonial specialists can distinguish copies from genuine Oak Tree coins through differences in fabric, die characteristics, lettering style, and overall manufacturing quality that reflect nineteenth-century production methods rather than seventeenth-century hand-hammered minting. The Colonial Restrikes and Fantasies classification acknowledges these pieces as legitimate collectibles within the broader framework of colonial American numismatics, valued for their connection to the original Oak Tree series and for their documentation of the nineteenth-century collecting culture that generated demand for them. Auction results demonstrate steady market interest, with better specimens achieving four-figure prices that recognize Wyatt Copies as significant numismatic artifacts in their own right.