Skip to content
HomeVideosBooks
AllTopicsTrends
BlogsPodcasts
HistoryListsWatch laterLiked videosFollowing

The videos, books, blogs and podcasts Hacker News keeps recommending, all in one place.

VideosBooksBlogsPodcastsAboutPrivacySettings

Data from Hacker News, HackerTube, HackerBooks, HackerBlogs and Open Library. Credits · Not affiliated with Y Combinator.

HomeVideosBooksBlogsPodcasts
Ctrl K
    Cover of Newton and the counterfeiter

    Newton and the counterfeiter

    Thomas Levenson · 2009

    Already famous throughout Europe for his theories of planetary motion and gravity, Isaac Newton decided to take on the job of running the Royal Mint. This is a compelling book about crime, science and money, and transforms our image of Britain's greatest scientist.

    Biography & Memoir
    Open LibraryAmazon
    Stats for nerds
    3recommend
    4mentions
    4people
    2009–2025years
    75% recommend25% neutral

    Mentions per year

    200920112013201520172019202120232025

    What Hacker News says

    1. kristiancJan 2025
      Newton and the Counterfeiter

      https://www.royalmint.com/shop/books/Newton-and-the-Counterf...

      Excellent book about Isaac Newton's role in solving the great recoinage crisis.

      thread
    2. saalweachterMar 2014
      For a non-fiction account, "Newton and the Counterfeiter", by Tom Levenson.
      thread
    3. asnyderNov 2009
      Sometimes you can get a good piece of non-fiction that's done very well. For instance, I recently read Newton and the Counterfeiter and found it excellent. In this case fact was far more interesting than any fictional account could've been. Furthermore, I was personally more interested in the outcome since the events actually happened. I get an interesting story, and learn history at the same time. Personally I couldn't ask for more.
      thread
    4. mannykannotMar 2024
      Somewhat off-topic, but some time ago I read Thomas Levenson's "Newton and the Counterfeiter", and by the end, my sympathies were with the counterfeiters.

      ===Mild spoiler alert===

      Isaac Newton was offered the position of Master of His Majesty's Mint more-or-less as a sinecure, not really expected to do much, but he took his responsibilities seriously, firstly by effectively managing the replacement of the realm's old coinage (a project that he had proposed as a solution of the then-unfolding currency crisis), and secondly by tracking down counterfeiters in a deadly (to the latter) game of cat and mouse. He seems to have taken counterfeiting as a personal affront.

      thread

    Related

    Cover of The hunt for Vulcan
    2017–2024

    The hunt for Vulcan

    Thomas Levenson
    2 recommend · 2
    Cover of Isaac Newton
    2010–2024

    Isaac Newton

    James Gleick
    4 recommend · 7
    Cover of Newton's Principia for the common reader
    2018–2026

    Newton's Principia for the common reader

    Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar
    2 recommend · 7
    Cover of Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica.
    2009–2025

    Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica.

    Sir Isaac Newton
    2 recommend · 20
    Cover of Newton the Alchemist
    2020–2022

    Newton the Alchemist

    William Newman
    2 recommend · 2
    Cover of The Great Reversal
    2019–2021

    The Great Reversal

    Thomas Philippon
    4 recommend · 7
    Cover of Newton's Principia, the central Argument
    2013

    Newton's Principia, the central Argument

    Dana Densmore
    2 recommend · 2
    Cover of The Principia
    2011–2015

    The Principia

    Sir Isaac Newton
    2 recommend · 2