Good Samaritan Wyatt Copies

About This Coin

Among the most distinctive productions of nineteenth-century copyist John Wyatt, the Good Samaritan Wyatt Copies reproduce the rare Good Samaritan shilling — a colonial Massachusetts piece whose reverse depicts the Biblical parable of the Good Samaritan rather than the standard pine tree, oak tree, or willow tree designs associated with the Hull-Sanderson mint. The original Good Samaritan shillings are among the most mysterious and debated pieces in colonial American numismatics: while they share technical characteristics with the Massachusetts silver coinage of the 1650s-1680s, their religious reverse design — showing the Samaritan tending to the wounded traveler — has no parallel in the documented Massachusetts coinage legislation, leading scholars to debate whether they represent authorized mint products, private commission pieces, or later fabrications entirely. Wyatt's copies enter this already complex attribution landscape by providing nineteenth-century reproductions of pieces whose original status remains contested, creating a layered authenticity question that distinguishes Good Samaritan numismatics from the more straightforward copy-and-original dynamics of the standard Massachusetts tree coinage. The copies reproduce the Good Samaritan scene on the reverse and a conventional Massachusetts-style obverse, struck in copper with the competent die work that characterizes Wyatt's broader production of colonial coin reproductions. The Colonial Restrikes and Fantasies classification provides the collecting framework for Good Samaritan Wyatt Copies, and auction results in the four-figure range reflect the combined appeal of the unusual Biblical design, the mystery surrounding the original Good Samaritan shillings, and the recognized collectability of Wyatt's colonial reproduction work. Collectors interested in these pieces engage with one of the most intellectually stimulating corners of colonial numismatics, where questions of authenticity, attribution, and artistic intention remain actively debated.