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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;kaparthy, post: 1832566, member: 57463&quot;]Few people except numismatists know him to have served for 30 years as Warden and Master of the British Royal Mint. In the 1690s, much of the silver coinage had been in circulation for a hundred years or more.&nbsp; Moreover, most of this medieval money was clipped.&nbsp; Silver coins were legal tender by &quot;tale&quot; or count. A worn and clipped silver shilling was legally the same as a new coin. (Gold legally passed by weight, not by count, and there was no incentive to clip gold coins.)&nbsp; Counterfeiting was easy because so many silver coins were worn beyond recognition and were trimmed small. </p><p><br /></p><p>In 1695, Isaac Newton served on a Regency Council with John Locke and Sir Christopher Wren, among others, to consider the problem. Newton and William Lowndes, Secretary of the Treasury, both favored issuing new coins that were devalued by 20%. Reducing the size or purity of the new coins would bring them in line with the statistical norm of the circulating coinage. The Bank of England and John Locke objected and their arguments held sway. The solution was to create a new currency of &quot;milled&quot; (machine-struck) silver coins. In order to make the new currency work, all of the old silver would have to be called in and replaced. </p><p><br /></p><p>Production at the Mint floundered. In the Spring and Summer of 1696, simple bartering reappeared at a level not seen since the Middle Ages. Then, Newton arrived.&nbsp; He assumed his duties as the king&#039;s warden on May 2, 1696. Every historian agrees that Newton&#039;s unfailingly honesty was the key to his success at the Mint. The Master, Thomas Neale, was lazy and rarely bothered to visit the Mint. Netwon showed up for work at 4:00 am and also made the night shift. He actually occupied the lodgings for the Warden, which no Warden had done in anyone&#039;s memory. Watching the coiners, he began time-and-motion studies. Analyzing the data, he found ways to improve efficiency. By June, the output of new coins increased ten times over to £4.7 million. Total output in all denominations weighed 3000 pounds per day. </p><p><br /></p><p>As the king&#039;s Warden, Newton also pursued counterfeiters. The full story is told in Newton and the Counterfeiter: The Unknown Detective Career of the World’s Greatest Scientist by Thomas Levenson.&nbsp; Professor Levenson’s narratives in this book have the inclusive force of videos.&nbsp; He puts you on the teeming streets of London, inside thesweat and smoke of the Mint, down the dank alleys and into the rowdy, bawdy taverns where criminals swap and wager.</p><p><br /></p><p>&quot;Nature and nature&#039;s laws lay hid in night; </p><p>God said, &#039;Let Newton be&#039;&nbsp; and all was light. &quot; - Alexander Pope[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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