Massachusetts Bay Colony Silver Sixpence (Pine Tree Coinage)

Historical Context

During the mid-seventeenth century, English colonies across North America experienced a crippling scarcity of standardized coin. Mercantilist statutes prohibited the export of domestic sterling from England to overseas plantations, while the colonial trade balance drained incoming foreign specie back to London merchants. Colonists in New England depended on commodity currency such as livestock and grain, indigenous shell wampum, and circulating Spanish-American silver cobs. These imported Spanish pieces varied widely in weight and fineness and suffered chronic clipping and counterfeiting.

To establish economic stability and supply a reliable medium of exchange, the Massachusetts General Court established a civic mint in Boston on May 27, 1652. The assembly appointed Boston silversmith John Hull as mintmaster, who engaged fellow metalworker Robert Sanderson as partner. Unilateral coinage infringed on the royal prerogative of the English Crown, but the execution of King Charles I in 1649 and the suspension of royal governance under the Commonwealth enabled the colonial administration to act without immediate royal interference.

The Boston mint's initial output in the summer of 1652 consisted of plain, irregular planchets stamped with NE on the obverse and Roman numerals XII, VI, or III on the reverse. Because these rudimentary planchets were readily clipped, the General Court mandated a total redesign on October 19, 1652. The new enactment required an inner beaded ring enclosing a tree on the obverse, accompanied by the authorization date and Roman denomination enclosed within a beaded border on the reverse, with civic legends placed around the perimeter.

Although the Boston mint operated continuously until 1682, all tree sixpences, shillings, and threepences retained the legal date 1652. Following the Restoration of King Charles II in 1660, maintaining this frozen date allowed colonial authorities to maintain that the coinage belonged strictly to an emergency measure enacted during the Interregnum. Numismatists divide the continuous production into three chronological series: the Willow Tree (c. 1653–1660), the Oak Tree (c. 1660/1662–1667), and the Pine Tree (c. 1667–1682). The enterprise was terminated in 1682 under heightened pressure from Crown authorities.

Statutory metrology for the colonial sixpence set the alloy to English sterling fineness (.925 fine silver, .075 copper) but reduced the coin mass by 22.5 percent compared to contemporary English silver. While an English sixpence was struck at 46.45 Troy grains (approximately 3.01 grams), the Massachusetts General Court fixed the colonial standard at 36 Troy grains (approximately 2.33 grams) to discourage export. Surviving circulated specimens typically weigh between 27 and 35 Troy grains (1.75 to 2.27 grams). Institutional records for the comparative example preserved in the Cleveland Museum of Art (accession 1940.440, gift of Hollis French) record a diameter of 2 cm (13/16 inch), with specimen weight and die axis unrecorded.

Obverse Iconographic Composition

The obverse field displays an upright, stylized evergreen tree identified as the eastern white pine (Pinus strobus), a timber resource central to New England shipbuilding and commerce. The design features a tall central trunk rising from a defined base or root line. From this trunk, multiple horizontal or slightly ascending tiers of boughs extend symmetrically, each rendered with short, spiked needle clusters.

Surrounding the central tree device is a continuous inner beaded ring. On major documented varieties within the series, two raised circular pellets flank the base of the trunk immediately above the baseline. The outer circumference of the flan is delineated by a second beaded border running along the coin rim, framing the peripheral legend.

Obverse Epigraphy and Inscriptions

The obverse legend is executed in Roman capital lettering positioned between the inner and outer beaded rings.

• Script: Latin (Roman capital lettering).
• Language: Anglicized Algonquian toponym combined with Latin preposition.
• Reconstructed Series Inscription: MASATHVSETS : IN :
• Transliteration: Masathvsets in
• English Translation: "Massachusetts, in"

Syntactically, the obverse legend serves as the opening phrase of a unified commemorative statement that continues on the reverse: "In Massachusetts, New England, in the year 1652." The letter V functions vocalically as U, and two vertically aligned raised pellets form punctuation colons separating the words.

Reverse Iconographic Composition

The reverse field is delineated by an inner circle of raised beads. Within this circle, the field is reserved for the legal authorization year and the colonial denomination, arranged across two horizontal registers:

• Upper register: The frozen year of authorization, 1652, rendered in Hindu-Arabic numerals.
• Lower register: The Roman numeral VI, indicating the face value of six pence.

An outer circle of uniform beads encloses the peripheral legend around the flan perimeter. On dies documenting the developed state of the series, a distinct vertical fracture develops in the reverse die steel, progressing across the central field from the denomination upward through the date digits into the inner ring of beads.

Reverse Epigraphy and Inscriptions

The reverse inscriptions consist of peripheral civic legends in capital Latin script along with central numerals denoting date and denomination.

• Script: Latin (Roman capital lettering and numerals; Hindu-Arabic date numerals).
• Language: English toponym and Latin ablative.
• Reconstructed Series Inscription: NEWENGLAND : ANO :
• Field Inscription: 1652 / VI
• Transliteration: New England : ano [anno] : 1652 / VI
• English Translation: "New England : in the year : 1652 / 6 [pence]"

Engraved between the inner and outer beaded rings, the word ANO represents an abbreviated ablative form of the Latin annus ("in the year"). Two raised beads arranged vertically serve as a punctuation colon between the toponym and the chronological abbreviation.

Typology and Documented Variants

Massachusetts silver sixpences are categorized across four sequential types: NE, Willow Tree, Oak Tree, and Pine Tree. In the Pine Tree sixpence series, numismatic corpora record two principal obverse dies and three catalogue varieties:

• Noe 32 / Salmon 1-A / Crosby 1-d / Whitman W-660: The rare "Spiny Tree" variety. The obverse displays an elongated tree whose trunk lacks flanking pellets, accompanied by a curved root line and wide spacing between the second A and T of MASATHVSETS. The obverse is paired with a reused Oak Tree reverse die featuring earlier lettering style and spacing.
• Noe 33 / Salmon 2-B / Crosby 1-A / Whitman W-670: The primary variety of the denomination. The tree exhibits four distinct tiers of branches with two raised pellets flanking the trunk above the horizontal baseline. The reverse die is unique to the Pine Tree series, displaying 1652 above VI, where early die states show an incipient hairline die crack between numerals 1 and 6.
• Noe 33a / Salmon 2-B / Crosby 1-A / Whitman W-670*: Struck from the same obverse die as Noe 33 with centered planchet alignment, paired with the same reverse die in an advanced state where the vertical crack between digits 1 and 6 extends into the outer lettering.

The Cleveland Museum of Art specimen (accession 1940.440) is catalogued institutionally as a sixpence of 1652 without an assigned die subtype. While specimens bearing two pellets flanking the trunk correspond typologically to the Noe 33 / Salmon 2-B classification group, institutional records do not assign a specific die variety to the piece.

Scholarly Debates and Attribution Limitations

Three substantive debates characterize the numismatic literature on the Pine Tree sixpence:

1. Production Chronology and Emission Patterns: Although Sylvester Crosby and Sydney P. Noe established the succession from Willow to Oak and Pine Tree types, pinpointing calendar years for individual emissions remains difficult. Because sixpences and threepences served as subsidiary change rather than principal commercial settlement currency, production was not annual. Bullion depositors determined the denominations minted, resulting in periodic batch production between approximately 1667 and 1682 rather than regular annual output.

2. Significance of the Pellets Flanking the Trunk: The intentionality behind the two raised pellets flanking the trunk on Noe 33 sixpences and Noe 1 shillings has been contested. Michael Hodder suggested that these pellets served as secret marks or assay identifiers introduced in compliance with General Court mandates for quality oversight. In contrast, Sydney P. Noe and later specialists noted the absence of corroborating documentary evidence in colonial archives, interpreting the pellets instead as punch marks, centering guides, or decorative foliage elements.

3. Artisanal Attribution versus Administrative Authority: Institutional records often cite John Hull and Robert Sanderson jointly as makers or fabricators. Historical documentation demonstrates that their partnership operated the mint as municipal contractors. Sanderson was an experienced practicing goldsmith and Hull primarily an administrator and overseas merchant. Surviving colonial court records do not indicate which partner, or whether a hired journeyman, engraved the working dies or struck particular flans.

References

1. Cleveland Museum of Art Collection Online: Sixpence (1940.440). Accession 1940.440
2. The Early Coins of America; and the Laws Governing Their Issue. pp. 34–42, 58
3. The Pine Tree Coinage of Massachusetts. Sydney P. Noe (1952), Numismatic Notes and Monographs 125; Pine Tree denomination and die catalogue. Further comparison requires the illustrated plates.
4. Heritage Auctions 2005 November 5 Signature Auction #388, Lot 1. Lot 1
5. Heritage Auctions 2015 January 7–12 FUN Signature Auction #1216, Lot 5530. Lot 5530
6. Stack's Bowers Galleries November 2023 Showcase Auction, Lot 2034. Lot 2034