London, 1696. England is in the middle of an expensive war with France, and in economic meltdown. No one knows what to do. The secretary to the Treasury has written to England’s cleverest men asking for solutions. The king warns that war will fail unless the currency is stabilised. The cause? A criminal underclass of clippers and coiners. In hidden rooms across London, men and women with shears were clipping the edges of coins and filing the edges smooth again. Silver coins had been clipped so many times since the ”orgy of clipping” began around 1690 that the English coinage was half the weight it should have been. Much of it was being melted down and shipped to France where silver fetched higher prices than at home.

Enter Isaac Newton…

Read more… http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/sep/05/newton-detective-thomas-levenson-review