Journal Home Page     Contents Page     Brimfield FleaMarkets.Com     Brimfield Country Store     Subscribe

March 2002 Issue

By James C. Johnston Jr.
Photos by Steven Vater

     When I was a child some fifty years ago, I used to read stories about strange coinage like the huge round stones of Yap with holes in the center. These great proto-coins were used to buy a wife. Now, I had no desire to buy these, but there were other coins which did excite my juvenile numismatic greed. This greed for all things good would lead me on to treasure hunts for the next half-century of my life.

Along with Ellis Parker Butler’s stories of the stone money of Yap, there were stories of undiscovered pirate treasure by Edward Rowe Snow located between the covers of the more than 100 books he wrote. Not only did Snow write about treasure, he actually found some.

I spent my kidhood dreaming of discovering coins. Then I came upon a wonderful book called Nooks and Corners of the New England Coast by Samual Adams Drake. It was a great old book published by Harper and Brothers in 1875. Between its pages then were hundreds of great New England stories, but the best of all was about the real life treasure of Castine, Maine.

It seems that a farmer, named Stephen Grindle, was hauling wood on a hillside on a point of land at the second narrows of the Bagaduce River about six miles from the Castine peninsula in the year 1840. As Grindle was working along, he saw a shining object lying in the ox track. He stooped and picked it up. It turned out to be a Pine-Tree Shilling dated 1652.

Pine-Tree Shillings were minted in Massachusetts from 1667 until 1682. They carried the date of 1652 as did almost all of the Mass. Bay coinage. The reason for this was that the government in England could be kept in the dark about the growing wealth of the colony. Willow Tree, Oak Tree, and Pine Tree coins were all dated 1652 which was the year that the silver coins, the “New England Coinage,” were first minted.

John Hull was appointed mintmaster in 1652 and produced coins, prospered, and grew rich. His coinage has been  most popular with collectors and commands great prices today. Grindle turned the coin over in his fingers. It looked as if it had just been struck. He quickly looked for some more coins and was rewarded for his effort. Alas, winter was soon upon Grindle, and he had to suspend his treasure hunting until the spring of 1841.

In the spring, the farmer’s treasure hunting was rewarded. He found seven hundred silver coins with a face value of about four hundred dollars. This was fortune in Maine in 1841. As a historic note, it is well remembered that Maine was first settled by people from the Plymouth Colony. Plymouth in turn became a part of Massachusetts in 1691. In 1820, Maine became an independent state as a result of the Missouri Compromise authored by Henry Clay.

Grindle knew how to keep his mouth shut, but he could not resist using his new wealth to pay off his debts to the local storekeeper.     Grindle’s spending of these strange coins excited some interest, and the story of his discovery came out.

As you know from reading last month’s issue, foreign gold and silver coinage circulated in the United States until Congress stopped the use of foreign specie in 1857. Even so, in 1841 such a foreign and colonial windfall of seven hundred coins would cause some reaction in the Castine community. Others would eventually seek treasure too. The interest of Dr. Joseph L. Stevens, who was a well respected antiquarian and coin collector in the area, was drawn to the discovery. He wisely bought up as much of the treasure as was available.

Thirty-four years later he showed the collection to Drake. It included: French écus, Spanish pieces-of-eight, Portuguese coins, Bremen thalers and minor coins, cob money (crude Spanish-American colonial coins) and British American silver. The locals had taken to looking for more treasure, and more bits and pieces were found – all of which were silver except for one gold coin picked up on the beach opposite the old Fort Pentagoët.

I doubt if there is any more old treasure there, but according such experts as Edward Rowe Snow, there is a good deal of treasure yet to be discovered. In addition, I knew that in “ye goode olde dayes” people used to place newly minted coins under the thresholds of new houses and the masts of ships. Coins can also be found stuck in old furniture, but that’s another story.

The best places to find coins today are coin shows. If you are going to be in New England in March, I would advise you to attend the following: The N.E.S.S. Coin and Stamp Show at the Holiday Inn in Dedham on March 3, Tom Lacey’s Auburn Coin Show at the Ramada on March 10 in Auburn, and the four day Bay State Coin Show at the Radisson Hotel, Boston, March 14-17. Here you can dig up your own treasures. Treasure is where you find it after all. So dig away.

James C. Johnston Jr. was born in the historic Oliver Pond House in Franklin, Massachusetts where he has lived for 58 years. He holds B.A. and M.A. degrees in History and is the author of several books. He has also written more than 1,500 articles and monographs in The Numismatist, Linn’s Stamp News, The Regional Recorder, and other publications.

 Johnston was a teacher in the Franklin system for 34 years and has been associated with Johnston Antiques since 1962. He is a well known appraiser of antiques, books, fine arts, stamps, and coins. He is a founding member of the Massachusetts Suburban Antique Dealers Association, a member of the American Numismatic Association, and the American Philatelic Society. He has also been President of the Franklin Historical Society since 1985.

  Johnston is also a well known lecturer whose topics cover a wide range of social history, antiques, coins, stamps, and the fine arts, as well as, politics and political and military history.