I am new to this site as I have just registered to ask for help from those willing to give it. My parents and I were cleaning out my grandfathers old house and I found an Old coin in one of his drawers mixed in with some Silver Half dollars and some other coins. Now, I looked it up to come to the conclusion that it is a 1652 Oak Tree shilling. The front has: 1652 XII in the Middle, The XII under the 1652. The words: "NEW ENGLAND ANDOM" Circle around it. The Bottom where it was... Stamped on to the metal? Must have been off centered, As the dots that circle the coin are pushed up a bit from the exact edge. The Back of it has: "MASATHUSETS IN" Circling the outer of it, With the Oak tree in the middle. It is also Off Centered a little, Similar to the front. Now, I can't take a picture of it yet as all I have is my phone, and That doesn't do the coin justice and won't provide a clear enough picture, But I will do my best to describe every little detail on it. The coin is not a perfect circle, It is a bit Lumpy and seems fairly thin, But not TOO thin. It seems to be Silverish, But blackened in some areas, I guess it is because it hasn't been cleaned in so long? I looked it up before, and They say that Replicas of the coin have been printed, But the word "Copy" would be engraved on the coin under the "XII". This coin does not have the word "Copy" Engraved there, Nor anywhere else on the coin. It seems to have some reasonable weight to it. Also, I know this might not help, But when you spin a quarter and it's circling just before it falls, it makes that Classic Metal sounding noise. This coin seems to have a Lower sounding noise when it's just about to come to a stop. I'm unsure if it's even real as it seems to be Too vivid for a Coin of that age, It's pretty clear/clean compared to the pictures I've seen of most of them. But I do not know exactly. I will try to get Pictures of it up here as soon as possible, But if anyone can help me in the mean time, I would greatly appreciate it.
This is true, and my apologies. I'm going to try and take some pictures of it and upload them. I appreciate the fast Reply. I've had this thing for Months now and I just recently found it in my "safe" as I was moving everything to my real safe. I just wanted to know about it.
These are the Pictures, Hopefully they are good enough. I'm Pretty sure the coin may be fake, But it's been bugging me and I'd like some expert opinions on it just in-case I am wrong, or Right.
Welcome to Coin Talk. Sorry to say but that does look like a cast replica to me, cool find though and may still be worth some money as there are people who collect fakes!
I figured as Much, I just wanted to run it by people who actually know about it as I'm basically clueless. >.<
These coins are completely out of my realm of expertise, but give the community some time and you'll be swimming in answers. Nice photos.
The Oak Tree Shilling is almost certainly a cast counterfeit. The JSO $5 Dolls piece is supposed to be a privately minted gold piece made by J.S. Ormsby & Co. in Sacramento in 1849. (This information comes from my Red Book.) JSO minted both $5 and $10 gold pieces. There are two versions of the $5 piece: The smooth edge is thought to be unique and the reeded edge is unique and is in the Smitsonian. I think it is safe to say it is EXTREMELY unlikely your piece is genuine. It is almost certainly not gold. Sorry for the bad news but at least you didn't pay money for these fakes.
