Massachusetts Bay Silver Shillings (1652–1682)

Historical Context

During the initial decades of English colonization in North America, regional commerce was hobbled by an acute and structural shortage of circulating specie. British mercantilist regulations prohibited the shipment of domestic sterling coin to the colonies, obliging New England settlers and merchants to conduct daily business through barter, indigenous shell beads known as wampum, staple commodities including grain and pelts, and a variable influx of Spanish-American silver acquired via West Indian trade routes. These Spanish colonial silver coins - consisting of eight-reale pieces and their fractions - circulated at unstable valuations and were frequently adulterated, clipped, or heavily worn, creating significant friction within commercial transactions.

Under English common and constitutional law, the authority to strike money was a sovereign prerogative reserved exclusively to the Crown. Minting coin without royal authorization constituted high treason. However, the trial and execution of King Charles I in January 1649 instituted an Interregnum, leaving England governed as a Commonwealth without a reigning monarch. Taking advantage of the administrative vacuum in London, the General Court of Massachusetts Bay acted on civic initiative, passing legislation on May 26–27, 1652, to establish a public mint in Boston. Subsequent legislation enacted on October 19, 1652, replaced the easily clipped initial punch-marked design with a coin bearing a protective outer circular border and a central tree motif.

Rather than operating the facility as an official state department, the colonial government engaged the prominent Boston silversmith John Hull as mintmaster, who partnered with his associate Robert Sanderson. The partnership established the mint within a private workshop erected on Hull's estate. The mintmasters were tasked with refining mixed foreign coin and plate to the standard sterling fineness of 0.925 silver, receiving an authorized percentage of the minted coin as seigniorage and operational fees. To prevent the newly minted currency from being gathered and exported back to England for bullion value, the General Court established the weight of the Massachusetts shilling at 72 troy grains, approximately 22.5 percent lighter than the contemporary English sterling shilling of 92.9 grains.

Following the restoration of King Charles II in 1660, the continued unauthorized operation of the Boston facility escalated into a recurrent constitutional conflict between Massachusetts authorities and imperial administrators. Royal agents, prominent among them Edward Randolph, cited the mint as an intolerable infringement upon royal sovereignty and commercial law. Colonial leadership answered these challenges by pointing to indispensable local commercial necessity, all the while maintaining the frozen date of 1652 across successive issues to tie the facility's origins to the Interregnum. Mint operations ceased around 1682 under persistent imperial pressure, culminating in 1684 when the High Court of Chancery in London formally vacated the royal charter of Massachusetts Bay.

Obverse: Iconographic Composition

The obverse composition of the Massachusetts tree series centers upon a stylized depiction of native New England forestry, serving as a distinctive regional emblem and an assertion of local resource autonomy. Over three decades of minting, this central arbor evolved through three successive typological groups: the Willow Tree (struck circa 1653–1660), characterized by a slender trunk and drooping, interwoven branches that were prone to double striking; the Oak Tree (struck circa 1660–1667), featuring a broad, rounded canopy with segmented lobes of dense foliage; and the Pine Tree (struck circa 1667–1682), delineated by an erect central trunk with horizontal, tiered boughs terminating in structured clusters of pine needles.

Institutional accession 1940.438 in The Cleveland Museum of Art illustrates the terminal Pine Tree group. The specimen displays an upright, symmetrically branched evergreen centered within a continuous inner border of small raised beads. The tree trunk rests upon a horizontal ground line positioned above lateral root spurs. Flanking limbs emerge in paired horizontal terraces, with the needles rendered as distinct raised pellets. The coin measures 2.6 centimeters in diameter, situating it within the compact Small Planchet division produced during the final phase of mint activity. The institutional catalogue records a weight of 4.666 grams. This is retained as a reported catalogue value; the public record does not establish its measurement method.

Institutional accession 1940.439 in The Cleveland Museum of Art illustrates the preceding Oak Tree typological group. The central field depicts a bushy, symmetrically branching tree set within a beaded inner circle. The trunk is ornamented with fine engraved cross-hatching resembling a garden trellis, flanked at its base by two diminutive vegetative shoots. The specimen measures 2.8 centimeters in diameter, displaying the broader, thinner blank format typical of the earlier tree series. The edge and surface profile may be compared with discussions of minting technique, but photographs do not establish the machinery used to strike this specimen. The institutional record likewise reports a weight of 4.666 grams. Its relationship to the statutory standard does not establish whether the catalogue value was independently weighed.

Obverse: Epigraphy and Inscriptions

The obverse epigraphy is positioned circumferentially within the outer annular band, framed between the inner beaded ring encircling the tree and an exterior border composed of raised beads or elongated radial denticles.

The inscription reads: MASATHVSETS · IN ·

The text is rendered in majuscule Roman capitals. The vocabulary utilizes early colonial English spelling to transliterate the Massachusett Algonquian toponym denoting 'at the great hill'. Minor die varieties across the broader series display variations in spelling, such as the omission of the letter H or the doubling of the letter S, alongside shifts in the form and number of interpunct separators.

Syntactically, the obverse phrase is an incomplete clause meaning 'Massachusetts in...', which finds its grammatical resolution across the boundary of the coin in the reverse legend. On Small Planchet Pine Tree issues, the circumferential inscription is typically punctuated by pellet groupings or rosette clusters near the base and separating the words, while Oak Tree dies commonly employ individual round pellets as stops.

Reverse: Iconographic Composition

The reverse design eschews figural illustration, prioritizing legal clarity, chronological documentation, and fiscal utility through explicit epigraphy and numeral markings arranged within concentric circular zones.

The central field, enclosed within an inner beaded ring, is occupied by two parallel horizontal elements: the date 1652 engraved above the Roman numeral XII. The numeral signifies the statutory denomination of twelve pence, corresponding to one English shilling. The letterforms are punch-cut into the die face with heavy vertical stems and defined horizontal serifs.

Striking characteristics vary considerably across the series due to evolving machinery. On the Small Planchet Pine Tree specimen preserved under accession 1940.438, the central date and denomination are sharply registered on a thick, compact planchet, enclosed by an outer border of pronounced, tightly spaced radial denticles, without certifying a particular press mechanism. On the Oak Tree specimen catalogued under accession 1940.439, the digit 6 within the date exhibits an extended, looping upper stroke, and the wider planchet invites comparison with mechanical-striking hypotheses, without proving the use of a rocker press.

Reverse: Epigraphy and Inscriptions

The reverse epigraphy encompasses both the circumferential legend and the horizontal text positioned within the central ring.

The circumferential legend reads: NEW ENGLAND · AN · DOM ·

The central field displays two lines: 1652 XII

The script combines formal Roman capitals in the circumferential band with Hindu-Arabic numerals for the year and Roman numerals for the denomination. The language represents an integration of vernacular English and abbreviated Latin, where AN · DOM · abbreviates Anno Domini, translating to 'in the Year of our Lord'.

When combined across both faces, the legends form a unified grammatical sentence: MASATHVSETS IN NEW ENGLAND AN[NO] DOM[INI] 1652 This translates directly as 'Massachusetts in New England, in the Year of our Lord 1652'. On Small Planchet specimens, the outer band terminates with a border of bold radial denticles, whereas earlier Oak Tree and Large Planchet Pine Tree issues utilize beaded circles or finer denticulation.

Typology and Documented Variants

The silver shilling series of Massachusetts Bay is classified across five successive chronological phases, each defined by distinct fabrication techniques and stylistic choices:

Phase I: The NE Shillings (1652) Authorized in May 1652, these pieces consist of plain, irregularly trimmed silver planchets impressed with two punches: the obverse features a square punch bearing the letters NE in ligature, while the reverse bears the Roman numeral XII. The broad, unadorned surfaces of the planchet left the coins acutely susceptible to fraudulent clipping and shaving, compelling the General Court to order a complete redesign five months later.

Phase II: The Willow Tree Coinage (c. 1653–1660) Introduced under the act of October 1652, the Willow Tree series placed the stylized tree and circumferential protective legends on both faces. The dies were clumsily executed and the blanks were struck on primitive equipment, resulting in widespread planchet doubling and partial legibility on surviving specimens.

Phase III: The Oak Tree Coinage (c. 1660–1667) Featuring a fuller, multi-lobed arboreal crown, the Oak Tree issues introduced superior die cutting and more consistent execution. Varieties within this group include trees with smooth, thorny, or cross-hatched trellis trunks, as well as distinct spiny shrubbery at the base. The series also introduced an authorized twopence denomination dated 1662, the only tree coin bearing an engraved year other than 1652.

Phase IV: The Pine Tree Coinage, Large Planchet (c. 1667–1674) The Pine Tree motif replaced the Oak Tree, presenting an evergreen with horizontal, terraced limbs. The initial Pine issues were struck on broad, relatively thin blanks measuring roughly 27 to 31 millimeters in diameter, exhibiting wide spacing between the circumferential letters.

Phase V: The Pine Tree Coinage, Small Planchet (c. 1675–1682) In the final phase of production, the mint contracted the flan diameter to approximately 24 to 26 millimeters while increasing the planchet thickness to maintain the statutory 72-grain standard. These pieces feature dense radial border denticles, compact lettering, and pellet rosettes. Surviving examples frequently display even striking relief indicative of screw-press operation.

Typological Classification Systems Early cataloguing by Sylvester S. Crosby grouped varieties by pairing numbered obverse dies with lettered reverse dies. Sydney P. Noe subsequently established sequential numbering systems within individual American Numismatic Society monographs dedicated to the NE and Willow, Oak, and Pine Tree issues. In modern scholarship, Christopher J. Salmon formulated an alphanumeric system organized around progressive die states, hub relationships, and minting mechanics.

Scholarly Debates and Attribution Limitations

Numismatic scholarship on the Massachusetts Bay silver coinage centers upon two principal historiographical questions alongside methodological boundaries governing die attribution.

Striking Mechanics and Minting Technology Historical accounts traditionally assumed that John Hull and Robert Sanderson produced all tree coinages by manual hammer striking or with an early screw press. Christopher J. Salmon argued that the Oak Tree and Large Planchet Pine Tree issues display structural features incompatible with direct vertical striking. These include pronounced planchet camber (a longitudinal curvature), progressive falloff in peripheral depth, and double-contour slippage, which he interpreted as evidence for a rocker press - a mechanism that advanced silver strip between rocking, curved cylindrical dies. Under this model, the mint only converted to a conventional vertical screw press during the final Small Planchet Pine Tree phase. However, numismatic conservators caution that eighteenth- and nineteenth-century collectors routinely hammered wavy colonial shillings flat to suit display trays, which can complicate mechanical diagnostic assessments on individual coins.

The Purpose of the Frozen 1652 Date Historians remain divided over why the Boston mint maintained the year 1652 on its dies for three decades. Sylvester Crosby and subsequent scholars argued for the deliberate deception hypothesis: by freezing the date to the Commonwealth era, colonial magistrates sought plausible deniability, maintaining that the coins had been struck solely during the Interregnum when no reigning monarch held the prerogative. Conversely, Louis Jordan demonstrated that imperial authorities were never deceived, as royal commissioners inspected the functioning Boston mint in 1665. Jordan proposed the statutory convention hypothesis, establishing that seventeenth-century English and colonial legal custom routinely retained the calendar year of an authorizing statute on official matrices rather than modifying dies annually.

Methodological Attribution Limits from Photographic Records While gross typological divisions - such as distinguishing an Oak Tree from a Small Planchet Pine Tree - are visually self-evident, definitive attribution to specific Noe or Salmon catalogue die combinations cannot be securely established from photographic reproductions alone. Microscopic diagnostics including die rust patches, precise counts of root spurs, minute letter recuttings, and exact die axis alignments are necessary to differentiate similar die states. Candidate die varieties (such as Noe-16 or Salmon 2-B for accession 1940.438, and Noe-1 or Salmon 1-A for accession 1940.439) represent unverified possibilities that require direct institutional examination before definitive classification can be assigned.

References

1. The Early Coins of America; and the Laws Governing Their Issue. pp. 31–70
2. John Hull: The Mint and the Economics of Massachusetts Coinage. pp. 15–95
3. The New England and Willow Tree Coinages of Massachusetts (Numismatic Notes and Monographs, No. 102). pp. 1–56
4. The Oak Tree Coinage of Massachusetts (Numismatic Notes and Monographs, No. 110). Noe, Sydney P. (1947), Numismatic Notes and Monographs 110, 23 pp. and 10 plates; publisher bibliography, not a full-text link.
5. The Pine Tree Coinage of Massachusetts (Numismatic Notes and Monographs, No. 125). pp. 1–62
6. The Silver Coins of Massachusetts: Classification, Minting Technique, Atlas. Christopher J. Salmon, The Silver Coins of Massachusetts (ANS, 2010); publisher notice in ANS Magazine, Spring 2011, pp. 64-65. Bibliographic confirmation, not the full monograph.
7. Pine Tree Shilling, Accession 1940.438. Institutional online collection record
8. Oak Tree Shilling, Accession 1940.439. Institutional online collection record
9. A Collection of Early American Silver Gift of Hollis French. pp. 131–142
10. 1 Pine Tree Shilling, Massachusetts, 1652, Catalog No. 1979.1263.00420 (Record ID nmah_1081177). Institutional online collection record
11. Catalogue of American Silver: The Cleveland Museum of Art. Phillip M. Johnston (1994), p. 76, listed in the museum bibliography. The linked object record confirms the citation; the book has not been independently inspected.