Est. 1998 — 27 years of woodworking knowledge
Sunday for Monday
Gary Smyth
In 1652 colonial America took a step toward independence by producing a series of over thirty different varieties of items featuring two kinds of trees. In 1662 a third type of tree was added to the mix but even the older versions continued without change. It took a man named Hull to get it done. In fact there was series of the items. What trees were featured? What was the significance of the items with respect to what it started to replace?
Hint
Gary Smyth
Given the year and Colonial America you can safely assume the East coast. The year 1652 is significant because it could save those who participated from being hanged. Examples exist today with some being worth well over $100,000.00. Owing to this there are many fakes and there is an industry out there to authenticate examples. The result of this was that it was the beginning of a way to provide an alternative to the Indian method of doing things.
Re: Interesting! Google = Can't answer
Trees are more than lumber, sometimes symbols
Re: Sunday for Monday
John Veerkamp
I'm up a creek without a paddle on this. Maybe laminated?
Sorry, no
Re: Hint 2
Gary Smyth
The events that directly led to the items took place in the colonies by need, and was aided by events in England several years before. The items I'm talking about made things more efficient on a local basis, but spread to other colonies once trust was established among gentlemen.
The items the question involves today are relatively rare but even in modern times are liable to show up in any place that has been around long enough.
Could...
Dale Lenz
Mr. Hull's title be confused with a candy maker/taster? Thanks for the question.
No, but what were you thinking?
Monday answer
Gary Smyth
Pine Tree shilling
There was also the Willow and Oak Coinage.
It was the beginning of using a local currency that replaced a bartering system using animal skins and wampum.
Taking matters into their own hands, Boston authorities allowed two settlers, John Hull and Robert Sanderson, to set up a mint in the capital in 1652. The two were soon striking silver coinage-in a number of stampings and denominations. During the first few years all of the new coins bore the same date: 1652.
This was the origin of America's most famous colonial coin, the pine tree shilling. The name comes from the tree found on the obverse. It may symbolize one of the Bay Colony's prime exports, pine trees for ships' masts. Massachusetts coinage not only circulated within that colony, but was generally accepted throughout the Northeast, becoming a monetary standard in its own right. Even though coins from England continued to be used, the local coins saved time and storage space in a local economy. Fine for the coast but not the frontier which continued older barter.
Why the 1652 date? Some believe that it was intended to commemorate the founding of the Massachusetts mint, which did occur in 1652. Others believe the choice was a reflection of larger political events. Coinage was a prerogative of the King. In theory, these colonists had no right to strike their own coins, no matter how great their need.
The year 1652 is significant.
Charles, King of England, was moved to Hurst Castle at the end of 1648, and thereafter to Windsor Castle. In January 1649, in response to Charles' defiance of Parliament even after a Civil War defeat, and his encouraging the second Civil War while in captivity, the House of Commons passed an Act of Parliament creating a court for Charles' trial. After the first Civil War, the parliamentarians accepted the premise that the king, although wrong, had been able to justify his fight, and that he would still be entitled to limited powers as King under a new constitutional settlement. It was now felt that by provoking the second Civil War even while defeated and in captivity, Charles showed himself responsible for unjustifiable bloodshed. The secret treaty with the Scots was considered particularly unpardonable; "a more prodigious treason," said Cromwell, "than any that had been perfected before; because the former quarrel was that Englishmen might rule over one another; this to vassalize us to a foreign nation." Charles, King of England, was beheaded Tuesday the 30th of January 1649.
Given the circumstances in England, in 1652, there was no king. King Charles had been beheaded three years previously, and England was a republic. The people in Massachusetts may have cleverly decided to put that date on their coinage so that they could deny any illegality when and if the monarchy were reestablished. (It was). Defying the charter from England's king, the Massachusetts Bay Colony set up a mint in Boston in 1652. Its output consisted mostly of silver shillings, coins valued at twelve pence. The Massachusetts Mint later produced smaller silver coins valued at six pence, three pence and two pence. Except for the twopence pieces, which were dated 1662, all of the coins minted at Boston carried the date 1652. The colonists had to do this, since a NEW English king had come to the throne in 1660, and he was angry that his exclusive right to coin money had been violated. The colonists successfully maintained their deception that all of the silver pieces had been minted in 1652 by continuing to use that date for a little over thirty years.
The mint�s first silver shillings bore simply the letters NE (for New England) on the obverse and the values XII (12 in Roman numerals), VI (6) or III (3) on the reverse. Easily counterfeited or clipped, these coins were quickly replaced by ones featuring a tree on their obverse. Three styles of trees were used over the thirty years of production: a willow (1652-60)(picture #2), an oak (1660-67)(#3) and, most familiar of all, a pine (1667-82)(#1).
In my research...
Dale Lenz
to your question I came up with John Hull, mintmaster. Mint as in candy, at least that was my thinking. They discussed willow and oak, did not carry on that far in my possible answer. Have a great week.
Re: In my research...
Gary Smyth
Dale, I didn't make the association. You had the right guy. I had in my mind a military man. In addition to his silversmith and mint businesses, Hull participated in several other activities throughout his career. Hull joined the militia as a corporal in 1648, rising to a sergeant on June 28, 1652, just eight days after the mint committee had taken action to erect a mint house. Hull was commissioned as an ensign in 1655 and became recorder for the military company in 1656. In 1660 Hull was admitted into the prestigious artillery company, where he was promoted to ensign in 1663, lieutenant in 1664 and held the rank of captain from 1671 until his retirement in 1678.