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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;josh&#039;s coins, post: 1904047, member: 51487&quot;] &nbsp;&nbsp; *** Incomplete 1st Draft***</p><p><b><u><br /></u></b></p><p><b><u>Early Colonial Era</u></b></p><p><br /></p><p>In the early 1500s when the American Colonies were first settled under the English Crown people had not used coinage in their trade system that much the reason being is that coins were used to pay for supplies from Europe and the English had not permitted the colonist to produce their own money. So people would barter for good and services mainly by using tobacco which was regulated by weight by the English Crown. In time the Spanish dollar had become the currency of the colonies as a result of trade with the West Indies. The Spanish dollar become the most trusted source of coinage for the colonist because of its consistent silver content.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]325793[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><b><u>Massachusetts Creates The Boston Mint</u></b></p><p><br /></p><p>Soon the colonies became more self-sufficient as their economies had stabilized. In 1652 the Massachusetts Bay colony established the very first Mint in the colonies which openly defied the Crown of England and struck a series of silver coins such as the pine tree shilling shown below. Though the Miint struck these coins for several years they kept the date set at 1652, this way if England were to find out about these illegal coins Massachusetts could defend itself by saying they had not made any coins since 1652. Pretty Clever huh?</p><p>[ATTACH=full]325794[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Problems had arose as people had begun counterfeiting the coin. In response these coins were replaced by the willow,oak,and pine tree series. All of which bore the date 1652 except the oak tree 2 pence. These coins were minted until 1682 and a request to renew the coinage was denied in 1686 by the general court of Massachusetts.The willow tree threepence has only 3 known to exist and the six pence with 14 known to exist. An uncirculated sixpence sold at auction for $253,000 in November 2005.</p><p><br /></p><p>The Oak Tree</p><p><br /></p><p>The oak tree twopence coins are dated 1662 and have common variants known as small 2 and large 2. These variants are basically equal in value in most grades.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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