taken from the BCTH May 15, 1997 newsletter  

1652 Mass. Willow Tree Shilling

One of our club members had the good fortune to a 1652 Massachusetts Willow Tree Shilling. He had dreamed of hunting this 1600s farm but put off getting permission until one day the opportunity came and he grasped at the chance. The owner said , “have a good time,” and he did from the time he stepped out of his car. Not 20 feet from his car he started to find old coins. On this first dig, he found one quarter 1929 and a nickel 1899 and a wheat penny dated 1919 about 4 inches deep.

It wasn’t long before he got another good signal. He dug down and found a silver Islamic coin, but he was still getting a signal something else was in that hole – a 1652 Massachusetts Willow Tree Shilling. It, of course was dirty and not wanting to lose any time detecting, he popped it into his pouch with this other finds and went on happily hunting. It wasn’t until he got home that he realized what a rare coin he had found. And after doing some research, he learned just what a extraordinary find he had. At this point, he is just trying to find someone who can authenticate his coin and possibly let him know what it’s worth.

 From doing his own research, the coin appears to be worth anywhere from $6,700 to $16,000. He is having as much fun finding out information about his coin as he did detecting it. The club is hoping he can enter it in the “10 Best Finds” of the year with Western and Eastern Treasures. For many reasons at this time he would like to stay anonymous. A big congratulations on his find.

 Now, for those of you like myself, who know little about coins and less about Colonial  coins, here’s a little history lesson…

The first struck coinage for the English colonies in America was issued somewhere around the year 1616. These coins were known as “Hogge Money” or “Hoggies”. They were made of copper lightly silvered in four denominations: shilling, sixpence, threepence and twopence. All were indicated by Roman Numerals. The hog is the main device and appears on the obverse side of each. Then is 1652, the General Court of Massachusetts ordered the first metallic currency to be struck in the English Americas: the New England silver threepence, sixpence, and shilling. The coins were made from silver bullion, brought in mainly from the West Indies The simplicity of the design on the New England coins invited counterfeiting and clipping of the edges. Therefore, they were soon replaced by the Willow, Oak and Pine Tree series. The Willow Tree coins were struck from 1653 to 1667, and the Pine Tree coins from 1667 to 1682. All of them (with the exception of the Oak Tree two pence) bore the date 1652