Exciting Colonial Coin Discovery Is Only Example Available to Collectors

The 1652 New England threepence has been recognized as the single rarest colonial coin by American collectors since before the Civil War.

A 1652 New England threepence, the single rarest colonial coin, will be offered in the November 2024 Showcase Auction by Stack’s Bowers Galleries. Recently authenticated by PCGS and graded EF-45, this new coin is now the finest known example and will be available to collectors for the first time in over a century.

Only one other NE threepence was definitively known, impounded at the Massachusetts Historical Society since 1905 and thus non-collectible. A second specimen, once in the Yale Cabinet, was stolen decades ago and never recovered. None have been in a private collection since the death of William Sumner Appleton in 1903.

“Lots of coins get called important,” said Stacks Bowers Galleries’ Director of Numismatic Americana John Kraljevich. “It’s hard to imagine anything more important than the discovery of a famous rarity, part of the first series of American coins ever made, that actually allows a collector to own a previously unobtainable type.”

New England shillings, sixpence, and threepence were struck in Boston at the first American mint, founded by the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1652 and operated by silversmiths John Hull and Robert Sanderson. While Willow Tree, Oak Tree, and Pine Tree coins were struck with 1652 dates until 1682, the original NE coins — displaying only the initials “NE” for New England on the obverse and the denomination in pence on the reverse — were struck for only a few months of 1652.

“As the very first American coins, NE shillings, sixpence, and threepence see a high level of demand and sell for dramatically high prices to well-heeled, historically minded collectors,” noted Stack’s Bowers Galleries Vice President Vicken Yegparian. “The record for an NE coin is $646,250, but we expect this piece to handily exceed that level.”

The newly discovered coin was found in an antique cabinet in the Netherlands in 2016 among a handful of other U.S. colonial coins. It was initially noted as being an NE threepence but was later confirmed as such in 2020.

The coin’s provenance is traced to Boston’s Quincy family, who were prominent participants in Massachusetts politics throughout the colonial era. First Lady Abigail Adams was a Quincy. In fact, future President John Adams wrote to Abigail from Amsterdam in 1781 to request “a few of the New England shillings. Pray send me, half a dozen if you can procure them by different Occasions,” in response to well known English numismatist Thomas Brand Hollis’ request for an NE shilling. It’s unknown if this coin came via Adams, but the connection appears likely.

The Yale University specimen was illustrated in a 19th-century woodcut as having a planchet split above “E” of “NE” that was also visible at the base of the reverse. No rumor of its existence has been heard since before a major 1965 burglary at Yale focused attention on its collection; several curators and researchers at the time confirmed the Yale threepence was long gone by then.

This new 1652 New England threepence will be a featured highlight of the Stack’s Bowers Galleries November 2024 Showcase Auction, held in conjunction with the Whitman Coin and Collectibles Winter Expo in Baltimore. Ahead of the sale, this treasure will also be on display at the firm’s Boston gallery during the month of September to commemorate the first striking of NE silver coins in Boston in September 1652.

To consign your coins alongside this historic rarity or for questions about the sale, contact Stack’s Bowers Galleries at [email protected] or 800.566.2580.

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