Jump to content

Scarce Massachusetts Shilling Discovered In UK


Recommended Posts


2 hours ago, PimentoUK said:

Here's one for you US coin enthusiasts. A New England shilling, found in a random collection, which also includes a Pine Tree shilling and two 'Continental'  pewter dollars.

A wealthy family from England, whose ancestors had business with the US in the early colonial days, "discovered" the coin among a random collection of US / British / Spanish coinage assembled by the family in years past:

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-tyne-58982457

 

Some history of the NE coinage:

https://coins.nd.edu/ColCoin/ColCoinIntros/NECoinage.intro.html

Awesome find, just tucked away all those years waiting for someone to notice it 😄 I think I have only heard of one 6 pence found detecting in the USA on Long Island. Quite a few pine tree, oak tree, and even a couple willow tree coinage found, but almost never NE coinage. The holy grail of colonial coins to be found here. I was lucky enough to know the person who hand engraved dies and reproduced a lot of colonial coinage.  He even has a huge screw press in his back yard 😵 Here are two examples of his work. This is the closest I will ever get to finding any NE coinage 🙁

PA200223.JPG

PA200224.JPG

  • Like 7
Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, kac said:

So do we get it back and the finder get a commission?

I think that we need to get them back and get to have some penalties for removing them from our country.

I think about a few trillion dollars ought to cover everything, and we can add that to pay off the national debt.

  • Like 1
  • Haha 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

20 hours ago, PimentoUK said:

A New England shilling, found in a random collection,

Pretty cool!  They made three denominations, all rare:  3 pence, 6 pence, and shilling (12 pence) -- this last being what was reported in the article as a recent discovery.  The 3 pence is the most valuable as only one survivor is currently known to exist.  I'm sure kac is on the lookout for all three of these during his detecting adventures.  😄

The first USA silver dollar minted (after ratification of the Constitution), in 1794, also has a strong British side story.  It also is a true American rarity even more highly sought and valued.  Two of the four finest know examples of this rarity were discovered in England in the 1960's.  As here, the owners of those had no clue that they had any extra value.  The nicer of those two sold for $5 million in 2015.

  • Like 4
  • Oh my! 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

When did the USA go decimal?
 
The Russian ruble was the first decimal currency to be used in Europe, dating to 1704, though China had been using a decimal system for at least 2000 years. Elsewhere, the Coinage Act of 1792 introduced decimal currency to the United States, the first English speaking country to adopt a decimalised currency.
 
What countries still use shilling, former English and British coin, nominally valued at one-twentieth of a pound sterling, or 12 pence. The shilling was also formerly the monetary unit of Australia, Austria, New Zealand, and Ireland. Today it is the basic monetary unit in Kenya, Somalia, Tanzania, and Uganda.
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 hours ago, geof_junk said:
When did the USA go decimal?
 
The Russian ruble was the first decimal currency to be used in Europe, dating to 1704, though China had been using a decimal system for at least 2000 years. Elsewhere, the Coinage Act of 1792 introduced decimal currency to the United States, the first English speaking country to adopt a decimalised currency.

You answered your own question.  :biggrin:  Prior to the formal establishment of the USA in 1788 (when the Constitution was ratified by a sufficient number of former Colonies, subsequently called 'States'), there was a mis-mash of coinage from various sources within individual states, some of which mimicked the British system (as illustrated by the coin in PimentoUK's initial post in this thread) and some copying the Spanish system.

  • Like 2
  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...