Howland Wood said Every collector should have a Pine Tree Shilling - Pictures Added in First Post
MidLifeCrisis
Posts: 10,524 ✭✭✭✭✭
In The Numismatist, November 1909, Howland Wood gave the following advice under the title of “Numismatic Maxims for Beginners.” Just one coin variety was specifically mentioned.
"Don’t set your heart on acquiring any coin right off. If you force the market you generally have to pay more than it is worth. If you are a young man you can afford to wait; it is only the old men who cannot. Don’t plunge in too quickly at the start and think you must buy every coin offered. Don’t try to collect everything; you’ll never catch up with your contract. Also you will not enjoy what you have. You’ve got to learn by experience; a few jolts and knocks will impress you more than all of the advice an older collector can give you. Don’t take any man’s word that a coin is unique. There are far fewer unique coins than there are said to be. Collect, if possible, coins in the best condition; you then buy but once, and when you want to sell, you have something worth selling. A poor coin is an aggravation and an eyesore, and you as a rule can get very little for it when you want to sell. A library goes hand in hand with the collection of coins. It is better to collect a few series and know your subject than to attempt to collect everything and think you know it all but really know nothing. Every collector should have a Pine Tree shilling, as that is the first question your guests ask if you have. Never cry down another collector’s coin; give them, at least, the benefit of the doubt. Never talk scandal or say mean things about other collectors; if you have nothing good to say, say nothing. The last maxim is the most important one to remember, and it is the one most often transgressed."
Of course, I agree with Mr. Wood! Here is my latest acquisition:
1652 Pine Tree Shilling
Large Planchet, Noe-1
Pellets at Trunk
PCGS XF45
Comments
Maybe someday.....
Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value. Zero. Voltaire. Ebay coinbowlllc
Every collector should have whatever coin it is that they want. Nobody should buy something because somebody else says they should.
Nice one! That seems like a meaty one for a PCGS value of less than 5 figures
Really? Are you sure?
Beautiful example with excellent centering! Congratulations. Nice quotation from Mr. Wood. I like "Never talk scandal or say mean things about other collectors; if you have nothing good to say, say nothing."
Yeah, I'm sure. Do you think other people should define your collecting interests?
Not sure there are enough. We might have to share, if that’s okay with you.
As the Joker says “why so serious?” 😘
I’ll never own one but love your example MLC. A more humble must have suggestion would be a Fugio, IMO.
And Mason, it’s just a suggestion. 😘
@Catbert - Every collector should have a Fugio too!
Great article and I love the pine tree shilling!
My YouTube Channel
[Every collector should have a Pine Tree Shilling]
Are they buying?
"When they can't find anything wrong with you, they create it!"
"You might consider" is a suggestion. "You should" is not.
Little did the 1909 numismatic community know… that Howland Wood had quietly amassed the single largest collection of Pine Tree Shillings ever assembled by a single collector
@MidLifeCrisis A fantastic post and example, congratulations! As always, you made a wonderful choice. It has been way too long since I have seen you post. This is a good one.
Looking for Top Pop Mercury Dime Varieties & High Grade Mercury Dime Toners.
I agree... Every coin collector should have a Pine Tree Shilling. So, if anyone out there has an extra, I will provide my address.....
Cheers, RickO
I've been collecting since I was a brat, I only acquired one last year. Now I want another. See, acquisition is dangerous, one is never enough.
But, Ricko, all of them are tarnished!
Why would you want such a thing?
OK MasonG, I'll play your semantics game. The word "should" has more than one definition. One definition is "used to indicate obligation, duty, or correctness". Another is "used to give or ask advice or suggestions".
So...Are Howland Wood and I telling you that you have an obligation to own a Pine Tree Shilling? Or, are we merely suggesting that you own one? I won't try to convince you one way or the other. It's your decision.
But while you are deciding, please know that I think this forum should be a place where people who collect coins can come for friendship, camaraderie and fun. Have a nice day!
I know I just had to have one!
Ok- you're right. In that spirit, everyone should ignore Mr. Wood's advice.
There's nothing wrong with both. A 20 dollar gold piece would compliment to
.
DANG. nice newp and i didn't even know that was you at first. it is also your avatar now?
if you're gonna own one, id say that is a fine example!
@Yorkshireman.... I figured someone has a polished one to get rid of...
Cheers, RickO
Now I want to get one too…
Mr_Spud
This could make for a good CRO ad caption. Of course, my guests never ask this. Philistines.
Keeper of the VAM Catalog • Professional Coin Imaging • Prime Number Set • World Coins in Early America • British Trade Dollars
Every collector should have... whatever it is I'm currently selling.
You need to add a store link to your signature
I'll pass. I've had my eBay listings messed with by people who didn't like things I posted. Not here, but I'm not taking any chances.
I had a counterfiet of one back in the day in grade school. Traded a lunch token for it. One time at one of my parent's card club get togethers, I was offerred 3 flying eagle cents but declined. Than somehow I lost the dang thing. I kept it in an long white envelope and in one of those coffee, sugar, flour ceramic canisters with lids. Another time, I hid it in the attic behind some old insolation. One day, couldn't find it. Mom said she threw most of the stuff out in those containers. Years later after my parents sold the old farm house and moved into town and it's like 20 years had past, there was a rumer that the people who bought the house claimed they found a penny in the attic woth $25,000. And it was years later after the rumer did I stop out there to ask about what they found and the dad denide anything was found. I'm sure, it was my mother who heard the story and than couldn't remember. I was like 10 to 14 years old when I had it than lost track of it, late 1960's, early 1970's. Trading lunch tokens, worth 25 cents, was how I built an Indian Head collection.
Leo
The more qualities observed in a coin, the more desirable that coin becomes!
My Jefferson Nickel Collection
No way I don’t believe it.
BHNC #248 … 108 and counting.
Beautiful Pine Tree @MidLifeCrisis
Successful transactions with : MICHAELDIXON, Manorcourtman, Bochiman, bolivarshagnasty, AUandAG, onlyroosies, chumley, Weiss, jdimmick, BAJJERFAN, gene1978, TJM965, Smittys, GRANDAM, JTHawaii, mainejoe, softparade, derryb
Bad transactions with : nobody to date
Believe or not- I don't care.
Can’t we all just get along?
Howland Wood
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Successful transactions with : MICHAELDIXON, Manorcourtman, Bochiman, bolivarshagnasty, AUandAG, onlyroosies, chumley, Weiss, jdimmick, BAJJERFAN, gene1978, TJM965, Smittys, GRANDAM, JTHawaii, mainejoe, softparade, derryb
Bad transactions with : nobody to date
Obviously, the absolute number of Pine Tree Shillings has remained more or less the same since 1909, but the absolute number of coin collectors has grown manifold. So this advice is clearly no longer practical today.
What interests me more, however, is the reason he gives for "needing" to own a pine tree shilling. Not "Because they're valuable", or "because they're beautiful" or "because they're historically significant", but: "Every collector should have a pine tree shilling, as that is the first question your guests ask if you have." As in, every non-coin-collector out there will assume you have one.
Seriously? Pine tree shillings were so famous in the wider community, back in 1909, that everybody had heard about them and wanted to see them, and conversations were actually expected to go like this?
"Hi there, I'm a coin collector."
"Really?!? Can I see your pine tree shilling, then?"
It seems more reasonable to me that the typical American citizen in 1909 wouldn't even have known what a "shilling" was, let alone a "pine tree shilling".
Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius, "Meditations"
Apparently I have been awarded one DPOTD.
Bowers on collecting: The Pine Tree shilling dated 1652
While today the 1652-dated silver Pine Tree shillings of Massachusetts are scarce in relation to the demand for them and are apt to be encountered just one at a time, and not all that often, this was not always the case. Shortly after the turn of the 20th century, Augustus G. Heaton visited W.S. Lincoln & Son, rare coin dealers in England, later informing readers of the July 1905 issue of The Numismatist:
In London… Lincoln has a small store on a central, though less fashionable street, but it is entirely devoted to coins and curios, which he mainly attends to unaided, and collectors have every attention. I was shown an entire tray full of Pine Tree shillings and sixpences—a very choice array, and a number of drawers of U.S. coins of all denominations with, here and there, very tempting pieces.
Imagine that!
Nearly a half-century later, in 1956, Louis E. Eliasberg, Sr., who formed the only complete collection of United States coin denominations, dates, and mintmarks ever assembled, prepared a booklet, “An Exhibition of the World’s Foremost Collection of United States Coins.” Among the highlights illustrated was a very attractive example of the Pine Tree shilling dated 1652, variety Noe-1. This commentary was included:
The first mint in the colonies was operated by John Hull without royal license. The General Court of Massachusetts Colony, in an order dated May 27, 1652, authorized the coinage of shillings, sixpence, and threepence, and fixed Hull’s fee at one shilling out of every 20 coined. The mint was located in the rear of Hull’s residence in Boston, and operations began in the same year
Successful transactions with : MICHAELDIXON, Manorcourtman, Bochiman, bolivarshagnasty, AUandAG, onlyroosies, chumley, Weiss, jdimmick, BAJJERFAN, gene1978, TJM965, Smittys, GRANDAM, JTHawaii, mainejoe, softparade, derryb
Bad transactions with : nobody to date
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Successful transactions with : MICHAELDIXON, Manorcourtman, Bochiman, bolivarshagnasty, AUandAG, onlyroosies, chumley, Weiss, jdimmick, BAJJERFAN, gene1978, TJM965, Smittys, GRANDAM, JTHawaii, mainejoe, softparade, derryb
Bad transactions with : nobody to date
@Sapyx - Many of Mr. Wood's other bits of advice are geared toward interaction with other collectors. Perhaps his advice about Pine Tree Shillings was meant in the same way. The "guests" he refers to may have been other collectors. If Pine Tree Shillings were exceptionally popular coins to collect in 1909, then other collectors would have been inclined to ask about them.
Of course, that's just wild speculation on my part...
I see his ghost at night and he’s trying to force me to buy a pine tree shilling 👻😭😩
BHNC #248 … 108 and counting.
BHNC #248 … 108 and counting.
Hi, Debbie! Has anyone ever told you- you look just like your profile picture?
BHNC #248 … 108 and counting.