The science of money: Isaac Newton's mastering of the Mint

Abstract

This article uses the records at the Royal Mint to explore how Isaac Newton worked with metal beyond his alchemical and natural philosophical pursuits. It demonstrates how institutional paperwork can be used to think in new ways about the management of working resources as well as the relationship of material and mental practices across the linked urban worlds of state, science and finance. It reveals how Newton negotiated artisanal and administrative skills through a learned ‘practical objectivity’, unable to rely wholly upon his scientific reputation or mathematical ability when working with men and metals within a government department. Finally, it illuminates how Newton's activities at the Mint intersected and influenced a growing interest in the pursuit of scholarly antiquarianism as well as commercial geology, mining, metallurgy and metrology in the early eighteenth century.