The Ebensburg Alleghanian. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1865-1871, 1868-12-10
THE PINE TREE SHILLING.
A STORY OF THE oLDEN TIME.

Captain John Hull was the mint-master
of Massachusetts, and coined all the money
that was made His was a new line of
business for, in the early days of the col
ony. the coinage consisted of the gold and
silver money of England, Portugal, and
Spain. These coins being scarce, the peo-
pie were often forced to barter their COM
modities, instead of selling them. For
instance, il a man wanted to buy coat,
he perhaps exchanged bear-skin for it
if he wished barrel of nlolasses, he might
purchase it for pile Cf pine boards
Nusket balls were used instead of far
things The Indians had a sort of money
called wampum, which was made of clam
shells, and this sIrange sort IF specie was
! likewise taken in payment of debt by the
| English settlers. Bank bills had never
been heard of. There was not money
enough of any kind, in many parts Of the
country, to pay their ministers, so that
they had sometimes to take quintals Of
fish, bushels Of corn, or cords of wood, in
stead Of silver and gold.
As the people grew more numerous, and
their trade with one another increased, the
want Of current money was still more SEN
sibly felt. To supply the demand, the
General Court passed law for establish
ing coinage of shillings and sixpences.
Captain Hull was appointed to manufac-
ture this money, and was to have about
one shilling out Of every twenty to pay
him for his trouble in making them.
Hereupon, all the old silver in the col
ony was handed over to Captain Hull.
The battered silver cans and tankards, |
suppose, and silver buckles and broken
spoons, and silver hits of swords that had
figured at court--ali such curious old ar
ticles-were doubtless thrown into the
melting-pct together. But by far the
greatest part Of the silver consisted Of
bullion from the mines of South Anleri
CO, which the English buccaneers (who
were little less than pirates) had taken
from the Spaniards and brought to Mas
sachusetts.
All this old and new silver being melted
down and coined, the result was an i'm
mense amount Of splendid shillings, six
pences and thrcepences. Each had the
date Of 1862 on one side, and the figure
of pine tree on the other. Hence they
were called pine tree shillings and for
every twenty shillings that he coined, you
entitled to put one shilling in his pocket.
The magistrates soon began to suspect
that the mint master would have the best
of the bargain. They offered him large
sum of money if he would give up that
twentieth shilling, which he was CON
tin ually dropping into his pocket. But
Captain Hull declared that he was perfect
" satisfied with the shilling and well he
might be, for 50 diligently did he labor,
that, in few years. his pockets, his mon
ey-bags, and his strong box were over
flowing with pine tree shillings. This
was probably the case when he came into
possession of his grandfather's chair; and,
as he worked so hard at the mint, it was
certainly proper that he should have a
comfortable one to rest himself on.
When the mint master was grown very
rich, young man-Samuel Sewell, by
name-came courting his only daughter.
His daughter-whose name [ do not know,
but we viii call her Betsey a fine,
hearty damsel, by no means as slender as
some young ladies Of our own days. On
the contrary, having always fed heartily
ON punpkin-pies, doughnuts, Indian-pud-
ding, and other Puritan dainties, she was
as round and plump as pudding With