| Opis awersu |
Plain, largely uniface field of hammered silver with an irregularly shaped flan characteristic of primitive colonial coinage. Toward the upper portion of the obverse, the incuse legend MASATHVSETS IN NE is stamped, though on many specimens the peripheral lettering is weakly struck or partially off the flan. The design is entirely typographic in nature, devoid of portraiture or figurative imagery, reflecting the austere Puritan aesthetic of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. The letters NE, denoting New England, are the most prominent identifying feature, punched into the silver planchet using simple hand stamps. The broad, unadorned field bears characteristic flow lines, die-polish marks, and surface irregularities consistent with hammered silver coinage of the mid-seventeenth century. |
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| Opis rewersu |
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| Pismo rewersu |
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| Legenda rewersu |
NEW ENGLAND AN DOM 1652 XII |
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Massachusetts Bay Colony struck these coins in defiance of English law — only the Crown held the right to mint currency, and the colony knew it. The date was frozen at 1652 deliberately, the year the mint opened, so that all subsequent issues could claim they predated the Restoration of Charles II and thus avoid the appearance of treason. The ruse held for nearly thirty years.
The NE type is the earliest and crudest of the Massachusetts silver series, abandoned quickly due to its susceptibility to clipping.