The E-Sylum:  Volume 7, Number 50, December 12, 2004, Article 20

SIR ISAAC NEWTON'S SECOND CAREER

  John and Nancy Wilson write: "Dear E-sylum readers:   
  We received this from Florence Prusmack, the mother 
  of Tim, the great money artist, who passed away earlier
  this year.  Though Florence isn't a numismatist the
  below information on Sir Isaac Newton is interesting 
  reading.  We appreciate Florence sending this to us
  and have her permission to have it reprinted in The 
  E-Sylum.  

  Tim's great work is still for sale by the family at: 
  www.money-art.com   We want to wish all of the
  readers of E-sylum a Happy Holiday Season."

  Now this about Sir Isaac Newton:  The genius who 
  discovered gravity as well as the concepts of mass and
  refraction:

  I was reading a book, "Dark Matter" which is all about 
  Newton's thirty-years as first Warden and then Director
  of the Mint of England, in London.  He taught for many 
  years at Cambridge, wrote his famous "Principia
  Mathematica" and "Optics," and many consider him the 
  greatest scientist in England.   ( Will Durant does in 
  his Story of Civilization, Vol. V.)  No one expected he
  would take his work at the Royal Mint so seriously or 
  stay so long.   But he did.  And with the enthusiasm of
  a knight in battle).  

  The economy and particularly coinage was in a precarious 
  situation.  Charles I had been beheaded in 1630, and 
  there was great fear that England would become a republic.
  His son took refuge in Paris barely escaping with his life.

  It was during this period that Cromwell took over:  In 
  1658 Oliver Cromwell died and eventually Charles II was 
  invited to return.   But the state of coinage at the Royal 
  Mint was appalling.  Silver was the coin of the realm but 
  rarely did two coins contain the same weight of silver as
  the other, or the exact amount of silver as promised since 
  the  ill-defined rims were easily chipped or clipped, thus
  degrading the amount of actual silver within the coin. 

  Sir Isaac Newton pursued counterfeiters with newborn 
  energy and determination.  He asked for and received 
  another title, that of Justice of the Peace so that he was 
  able to arrest a miscreant on the spot.  He employed a 
  network of informers and spies to help him, and frequently
  the distinguished scientist was seen running after a 
  counterfeiter with his wig flying, oblivious to his 
  advancing years.  He insisted that a shilling should have 
  the promised shilling's worth of silver.  It was no secret
  that angry conspirators plotted to assassinate him but, 
  somehow, he always managed to escape their threats and 
  incarcerated them instead.   Serious offenders who murdered
  in the course of a criminal offense against the Mint, 
  lost their lives.  

  Some charlatans insisted they could turn other metals 
  into gold and plotted to deceive him but Sir Isaac, no 
  stranger to metallurgy, always exposed their chicanery 
  and threw them into the gruesome and eerie jails within 
  the Tower of London.  Never married, he lived in a 
  cottage within the housing area close to the Mint until 
  his death in 1727.  Thanks to him, he restored the 
  integrity of the Mint.  

  Now, isn't this just a great answer for Jeopardy? Sir 
  Isaac Newton's second career?   Hope you enjoyed reading
  this fascinating information on a great person.  Best
  wishes,  Florence Prusmack."

  Wayne Homren, Editor

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