1 New England Shilling, Massachusetts, 1652
date: label: date made
content: 1652
name: label: maker
content: Massachusetts Bay Colony
notes: label: Description (Brief)
content: One (1) New England shilling coin
label: Description (Brief)
content: Massachusetts, 1652
label: Description (Brief)
content: Obverse Image: N/A
label: Description (Brief)
content: Obverse Text: NE
label: Description (Brief)
content: Reverse Image: N/A
label: Description (Brief)
content: Reverse Text: XII
label: Description
content: Boston was founded in 1630. Within two decades, it had become a prosperous, thriving community, engaging in legal trade with the mother country and clandestine trade with Spanish America.
label: Description
content: Perpetually short of coinage, the proper Bostonians came up with an unorthodox idea: they would take a portion of the silver coming in from the south, melt it down, and make coins from it. Their first efforts were modest. They recast the silver, beat it into thin sheets, then cut more-or-less round blanks from it. The blanks were struck with simple designs, once on each side.
label: Description
content: The resulting coins were fairly easy to counterfeit. They were very easy to clip off some of the metal (and a portion of their value would be thereby removed). Embarrassed bureaucrats soon legislated more sophisticated designs that took up all of each side of the coin.
place: label: place made
content: United States: Massachusetts
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: National Numismatic Collection
label: See more items in
content: Coins, Currency and Medals
label: Exhibition
content: Value of Money
label: Exhibition Location
content: National Museum of American History
publisher: label: Related Publication
content: Feingold, Ellen R.. Value of Money, The
label: Related Publication
content: Glossary of Coins and Currency Terms
label: Related Web Publication
content: http://americanhistory.si.edu/coins/glossary.cfm
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Emery May Holden Norweb
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: NU.82.48.01
label: accession number
content: 1982.0798
label: catalog number
content: 82.48.01
objectType: label: Object Name
content: coin
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: silver (overall metal)
label: Physical Description
content: 0 (overall die axis)
label: Physical Description
content: 0 (overall die axis measurement)
label: Physical Description
content: struck (overall production method)
label: Measurements
content: overall: .1 cm x 2.8 cm; 1/32 in x 1 3/32 in