I stumbled across an article about a time capsule laid in the corned stone of the Massachusetts state house 1795 By Sam Adams and Paul Revere.
one of the items found inside was a 1652 Pine tree Shilling. the museum that opened the time capsule believed that this was placed in the capsule to remind us that while independence was in 1776 the people had been independent a very long time.
The coins were actually belied minted from 1667-1674 a bit more than a hundred years before 4/191775.
why 1652 on every coin when they were minted 15-22 years later.
first to commemorate the Massachusetts charter 1652 but also there was no king in 1652 , Minting coins being the domain of the king they could have some claim to not illegally minting coin
https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search/object/nmah_1082064
telling more about our story leading up to 4/19/1775.
The time capsule was laid when Paul Revere was the Most Worshipful Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts - http://www.mwsite.org/papers/mwrevere.html - and had the "historians" bothered to ask Grand Lodge, they'd have known exactly what was in it before they even opened it, as the Grand Lodge's library still has the records of when it was placed. (One of my good friends is the Grand Historian and runs the Grand Lodge library).
When the capsule was replaced a couple of years ago, there was a procession of nearly 1000 Massachusetts Masons to the state house to watch it done. I couldn't get the day off, or I'd've been there in the procession, too.
I suspect there are many things the Masons could tell if asked. The library must contain nearly 3 hundred years of history.
There is a library in the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania in Philidelphia as well.