Newton and the Counterfeiter by Thomas Levenson

In a nutshell

This is a book that I've been wanting to read for quite a long time. I've had it on my Kindle for ages, and finally got around to reading it while on holiday. This book is about a period of history that I never knew about Isaac Newton; the time in his life when he was Warden of the Royal Mint in England. During his tenure at the Mint, he managed to take a public service entity that was pretty much haemorrhaging money and turn it around with the speed and efficiency that you would expect from someone of his drive and genius. During this time, he also took on a part of the job he originally tried to shirk off (going after coiners), and turned into one of the best anti-counterfeiting deterrents the mint has ever seen.

Did I like it?

I loved this book! Not only did I learn a great deal about Newton during a his tenure at the mint, a time in his life I knew almost nothing prior to this book, but this book also got into some fascinating detail about who Newton was, and what made him tick. Just as Einstein's contemporaries were visionaries in Physics, Newton was rubbing elbows with some of the best thinkers of his time: Halley, Hooke, Harrison, Leibniz and many others. I also learned that Newton wasn't the kind of guy you wanted to piss off; as William Chaloner found out in due course with his counterfeiting.

...Isaac Newton was a total badass!

Will you like it?

If you want to get into a bit of seedy history and learn about the late, great Isaac Newton, as well as learn a great deal about how our current financial system was like just a few years back, then this book is totally for you.

What else happened while I was reading this book

I had started this book before I went on holiday, but while reading it, we took a 10 day holiday to the Hawkes Bay and Waikanae. The weather was pure crap for most of the trip, but I did manage to read quite a lot of this book while seated in a hanging wicker basket chair...ahhhh, luxury!