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Books (well, book)
Newton and the Counterfeiter, Thomas Levenson
Some nice light historical reading, the nonfictional counterpart to Neal Stevenson's Baroque Cycle, but one sensible-sized paperback and not three bricks. The counterfeiter is William Chaloner, who seemed to have amazing amounts of chutzpah and persistence, and kept coming up with all sorts of crazy criminal schemes.
One interesting thing seems to be that hunting counterfeiters was something that Newton needed to be pushed into. His post as Warden of the Mint was a sinecure, and it was a bit of a surprise to all concerned when he actually applied himself to the problem of getting the mint to run at the capacity needed to recoin all the silver in circulation. However, during this someone pointed out that the Warden was meant to be in charge of investigating and prosecuting counterfeiters - this was something Newton didn't want to do, but his arm was twisted, and he turned out to be good at it.
Some nice light historical reading, the nonfictional counterpart to Neal Stevenson's Baroque Cycle, but one sensible-sized paperback and not three bricks. The counterfeiter is William Chaloner, who seemed to have amazing amounts of chutzpah and persistence, and kept coming up with all sorts of crazy criminal schemes.
One interesting thing seems to be that hunting counterfeiters was something that Newton needed to be pushed into. His post as Warden of the Mint was a sinecure, and it was a bit of a surprise to all concerned when he actually applied himself to the problem of getting the mint to run at the capacity needed to recoin all the silver in circulation. However, during this someone pointed out that the Warden was meant to be in charge of investigating and prosecuting counterfeiters - this was something Newton didn't want to do, but his arm was twisted, and he turned out to be good at it.