Comments on: The other side of the coin(age): Newton and the Counterfeiter https://gregladen.com/blog/2010/08/04/the-other-side-of-the-coinage/ Fri, 06 Aug 2010 13:11:27 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.8 By: Charlotte https://gregladen.com/blog/2010/08/04/the-other-side-of-the-coinage/#comment-521315 Fri, 06 Aug 2010 13:11:27 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2010/08/04/the-other-side-of-the-coinage/#comment-521315 I just put this on my Kindle and am enjoying it quite a bit.

]]> By: Tom Levenson https://gregladen.com/blog/2010/08/04/the-other-side-of-the-coinage/#comment-521314 Thu, 05 Aug 2010 03:13:31 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2010/08/04/the-other-side-of-the-coinage/#comment-521314 Dear Greg,

Many thanks for this very kind notice. I’m blushing. (Next lunch on me — or better, a meal at a time of day when grain or grape, in liquid form, is involved.)

Best — Tom

]]> By: Greg Laden https://gregladen.com/blog/2010/08/04/the-other-side-of-the-coinage/#comment-521313 Wed, 04 Aug 2010 21:38:17 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2010/08/04/the-other-side-of-the-coinage/#comment-521313 I can’t imagine how you’d draw the story out into a book though.

Well, you’ve never had lunch with Tom, then, have you. He’s a story teller. The book is excellent.

]]> By: MadScientist https://gregladen.com/blog/2010/08/04/the-other-side-of-the-coinage/#comment-521312 Wed, 04 Aug 2010 21:23:14 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2010/08/04/the-other-side-of-the-coinage/#comment-521312 Newton was brilliant – he standardized the minting of coin. You could weigh the gold coins to see if they had been ‘shaved’ and if they had, you took whoever was handing out these shaved coins and had ’em drawn and quartered. He also put the markings on the edge of coins to make it easier to spot trickery without weighing it all. If you’d had a chance to play with ancient gold coin for example, you’d see a pretty big variation in weights of a single type until Newton’s era, and that was due largely to the lack of standardization and not to people shaving a bit off the edge. I can’t imagine how you’d draw the story out into a book though.

]]> By: WIll https://gregladen.com/blog/2010/08/04/the-other-side-of-the-coinage/#comment-521311 Wed, 04 Aug 2010 16:30:27 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2010/08/04/the-other-side-of-the-coinage/#comment-521311 Greg let’s see a post about Intel’s new 50 Gbps Silicon Photonics link!

]]> By: quietmarc https://gregladen.com/blog/2010/08/04/the-other-side-of-the-coinage/#comment-521310 Wed, 04 Aug 2010 16:29:43 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2010/08/04/the-other-side-of-the-coinage/#comment-521310 I only “knew” this because it figured into Neal Stephenson’s Quicksilver trilogy. I should pick up this book, if only to replace “fact inspired fiction” with “actual fact” in my brain….

]]> By: wfr https://gregladen.com/blog/2010/08/04/the-other-side-of-the-coinage/#comment-521309 Wed, 04 Aug 2010 16:16:55 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2010/08/04/the-other-side-of-the-coinage/#comment-521309 I think of Isaac Newton every time I stare at the edge of a quarter.

]]> By: Scott_SGG https://gregladen.com/blog/2010/08/04/the-other-side-of-the-coinage/#comment-521308 Wed, 04 Aug 2010 15:52:15 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2010/08/04/the-other-side-of-the-coinage/#comment-521308 Hmmm… I’m intrigued. Every new thing I hear about him, I end up feeling that Newton was more of an interesting character than I already though.

In addition to all his, um, eccentricities as a scientist, wasn’t Newton also a real harda$s as head of the mint? I guess he’d have to have been, though, since wasn’t the penalty for counterfeiting in Britain death?

]]>