Speaker 1: This is an I heart original. William Chaloner was raving.
Speaker 1: His face was slick with sweat, his eyes were rolling.
Speaker 1: He ripped off his clothes, literally tore them to pieces,
Speaker 1: and ran stark naked around the ward At midnight, the
Speaker 1: warder's managed to catch and find him hand and foot,
Speaker 1: and confine him to his bed, where he was now
Speaker 1: being taunted by the devil himself, crouched in the corner
Speaker 1: of his cell, laughing and hissing at it. Don't don't
Speaker 1: let him take me. I pray you good, sir, please?
Speaker 1: Or was he the sinews of his roguedy, money being
Speaker 1: gone to and his pretended services all blasted, he had
Speaker 1: little hopes left, and, being of a very cowardly nature,
Speaker 1: the apprehension of what he might come to struck him
Speaker 1: into a fit of sickness, and wrought so strong upon
Speaker 1: his brain that he was sometimes delirious, in which fits
Speaker 1: he was continually raving that the devil was come for him.
Speaker 1: In such frightful whimsies these intervals of lunacy, he endeavored
Speaker 1: to improve to a height sufficient to put off his
Speaker 1: approaching trial, counterfeiting the madman as well he could. Chowner
Speaker 1: could have been faking it. After all, Faking it was
Speaker 1: something that he was very, very good at, but he
Speaker 1: also might not have been. When Chowner had arrived at
Speaker 1: Newgate in October of the previous year, he was confident
Speaker 1: that he could figure a way out of this jam.
Speaker 1: But Chowner didn't know what he was up against. When
Speaker 1: he arrived there, he made very light of the matter,
Speaker 1: bragging he had a trick left yet, But when he
Speaker 1: heard how many witnesses came in against him, he began
Speaker 1: to droop. Challenger had by now spent months in Newgate, filthy,
Speaker 1: disgusting Newgate, and without the money that had bullied him
Speaker 1: through his last into Newgate, things were bleak. It was winter,
Speaker 1: cold and wet, and the walls wet with damp. He
Speaker 1: slept on straw covering a bare board. He couldn't afford
Speaker 1: to send out for nicer or even palatable food, and
Speaker 1: he was drinking the filthy, disease riddled water that everyone
Speaker 1: else was. And in that time he'd seen his hopes
Speaker 1: extinguished one after the other, until all he was left
Speaker 1: with was the dark fact of his impending death. It
Speaker 1: was enough to send someone mad, but in all honesty,
Speaker 1: it didn't matter whether Challenger was really suffering a mental
Speaker 1: health episode. It's not like there's an insanity plea in
Speaker 1: the seventeenth century. For one thing and for another time
Speaker 1: for William Challoner was running out, but alas all would
Speaker 1: not do, the sessions came in which his long concealed
Speaker 1: villainies were to be laid open to the world, and justice,
Speaker 1: which often had attempted as had often been baffled by him,
Speaker 1: was now ready with her iron hands to break in
Speaker 1: two pieces for I Heart Radio, I'm Linda Rodriguez mccrabie,
Speaker 1: and this is Newton's Law. Episode eight, our final episode
Speaker 1: cashed out You're Act one Chaloner's defense. While Chaloner wasted
Speaker 1: away in Newgate, Isaac Newton was busy. Challenger's trial would
Speaker 1: take place at the next sessions, although when exactly that
Speaker 1: would be was uncertain, but Newton needed the time to
Speaker 1: make sure that his case against Challenger was rock solid.
Speaker 1: Newton spent the first few months of deep in the
Speaker 1: Challenger case, collecting the depositions of scores of witnesses who
Speaker 1: could testify that they had seemed Challenger plying as terrible
Speaker 1: craft and crucially, Newton made sure that these witnesses weren't
Speaker 1: going to do a runner or get cold feet when
Speaker 1: the sessions came around. Tom Levinson, author of Newton and
Speaker 1: the Counterfeiter, One of the things I think Newton learns
Speaker 1: from this first defeat is that he has to arrest
Speaker 1: and confine the people who have the goods on Challenger
Speaker 1: and offer them, you know, whatever it takes to get
Speaker 1: them to tell the story he wanted to hear about
Speaker 1: Challenger and not let him get away. You get to
Speaker 1: a position where challengers techniques could could influence them. Newton's
Speaker 1: principal informant was Thomas Carter, the man who had been
Speaker 1: in with Challenger on the mult ticket scam. Carter knew
Speaker 1: that giving the warden all the information he could was
Speaker 1: his only chance of making it out of Newgate alive.
Speaker 1: That all his hopes lay in giving Newton everything he
Speaker 1: needed to hang Challenger. I can produce another to justify
Speaker 1: besides myself, and I believe I can produce some of
Speaker 1: his work all this which he has said, I can
Speaker 1: bring good witness to justify it. I humbly lay myself
Speaker 1: at your honest fate, hoping your honest favor as I
Speaker 1: shall endeavor to deserve it. Carter became Newton's man on
Speaker 1: the inside, and he connected Newton with a bunch of informants.
Speaker 1: And one of the things Newton did was put informants
Speaker 1: and spies basically next to Chaloner in the cells. And
Speaker 1: Chaloner was clever enough to know that this was likely
Speaker 1: to happen, so he basically disdained the first couple that
Speaker 1: Newton put in and and sort of diagnosed them as
Speaker 1: potential spies. But Newton just kept putting people in, and
Speaker 1: finally Chaloner actually began to speak more openly to one
Speaker 1: of Newton's agents, John Ignacious Lawson, was a former doctor
Speaker 1: turned coiner who was desperate to be abuse. Lawson told
Speaker 1: Newton that he was starving and that since he had
Speaker 1: been locked up, some of his past confederates had stolen
Speaker 1: all of his money and property and are of one
Speaker 1: of his children to death and sent the rest of begging.
Speaker 1: Lawson was the perfect spy. He and Chaloner had never
Speaker 1: worked together, so that meant that Challenger wasn't worried that
Speaker 1: Lawson could testify against him directly. Lawson was able to
Speaker 1: get close to Challeoner, even sleeping in the same cell.
Speaker 1: Lawson was later tried for coining in October, but he
Speaker 1: got off on a technicality a matter of jurisdiction or
Speaker 1: and this seems like it's more likely a matter of
Speaker 1: past usefulness. Lawson told Newton who Challenger was worried would
Speaker 1: testify against him. Carter, of course, and his wife Catherine,
Speaker 1: and the Holloways, but also some new names. This gave
Speaker 1: Newton more people to find to testify against Challenger. Lawson
Speaker 1: was also the one who told Newton that Challenger was
Speaker 1: quote feigning madness in order to delay his trial. William Chandoner,
Speaker 1: being my chamber mate, owned to me that when the
Speaker 1: sessions came, and if he found himself in danger, he
Speaker 1: would pretend himself sick. Challoner obviously didn't know that Lawson
Speaker 1: was telling Newton everything, but even if he had, there
Speaker 1: was probably little he could have done to save himself.
Speaker 1: He didn't even really know what he was being charged with,
Speaker 1: and he had little idea of who else beyond Thomas
Speaker 1: Carter and Thomas Holloway. Isaac Newton might be bringing his witness.
Speaker 1: Like most people awaiting trial at Newgate, Challoner would have
Speaker 1: been conducting his own defense. At this time, people accused
Speaker 1: of most crimes were not permitted a defense lawyer. The
Speaker 1: only exception was in cases of high treason, which technically
Speaker 1: counterfeiting was this was to curb abuse of the charge
Speaker 1: by the sovereign, but counterfeiting wasn't that type of high treason. Evidently,
Speaker 1: so coiners and clippers still didn't get defense lawyers. So
Speaker 1: Chaloner was grasping at straws. Channer wrote to Secretary of
Speaker 1: State James Vernon and too Newton to claim that the
Speaker 1: whole malt ticket scam was Carter's plot to ensnare Chander
Speaker 1: in some quote mischief. What's more, Carter, he said, was
Speaker 1: nothing more than a rogue and a criminal. For I
Speaker 1: have such a man to be evidence against me that
Speaker 1: will not stick at anything, to swear to get his
Speaker 1: own liberty. He was once taken for coining and stealing
Speaker 1: horses and put him warrick gail. He has been six
Speaker 1: times in the pillory in London and one in the
Speaker 1: country for forgery and perjury. He robbed his master and
Speaker 1: was put in the counter and got out in woman's clothes.
Speaker 1: He has gone by several names. He has been in
Speaker 1: most gails in England. I discovered and convicted him of
Speaker 1: forgery but he got out of jail, so I know
Speaker 1: he will do me all the hurt he can. Challenger
Speaker 1: tried to appeal directly to Newton, the man he saw
Speaker 1: as both the author of all of his sufferings and
Speaker 1: the only person who could end them. I beg you
Speaker 1: will not continue your displeasure against me, for I have
Speaker 1: suffered very much. I wholly throw myself upon your great goodness.
Speaker 1: I m, Sir, your most humble and obedient servant. His
Speaker 1: letters to Newton were increasingly desperate, increasingly willing to give
Speaker 1: up whatever he could to save himself. Sir, in obedience
Speaker 1: to your worship, I will give you the best account
Speaker 1: I can remember. God shall be glad to do any
Speaker 1: service to the government that is in my power. If
Speaker 1: I intended to have anything to do in counterfeiting of
Speaker 1: mult tickets, then I des God all my team. I
Speaker 1: never received my soul. I have been guilty of no
Speaker 1: crime these six years. If he ever said that he
Speaker 1: could engrave plates and make coin, well that was jest.
Speaker 1: It was a joke. That whole thing in front of Parliament,
Speaker 1: accusing the Mint of corruption. He'd been forced to testify honest,
Speaker 1: and this whole mult ticket scam. This was obviously worked
Speaker 1: up by that David Davis to get money out of
Speaker 1: the government. Oh, for God's sake, do not for suspicions
Speaker 1: and suggestions seem real truth. And so let me go
Speaker 1: murthered out of the world. Oh, let your great goodness
Speaker 1: be known to the world by being merciful to me.
Speaker 1: Chalder's mental state was clearly deteriorating by the time he
Speaker 1: wrote to Justice Raylton, the local magistrates supervising the case.
Speaker 1: He said, I am so very ill, I cannot hold
Speaker 1: my Newton of course, never responded to any of Challenger's letters.
Speaker 1: Why would he. He had all that he needed. The
Speaker 1: rope wound from the testimonies of so many people was
Speaker 1: around Challenger's neck already, It just needed a good tightening.
Speaker 1: On March one, the Grand Jury met at the guild Hall,
Speaker 1: the sort of city hall for the city of London.
Speaker 1: This was a hearing to determine whether the indictments against
Speaker 1: Challengers should go ahead and to give Challenger a chance
Speaker 1: to plead. He might have been surprised to learn then
Speaker 1: and there that he was being charged with three counts
Speaker 1: of counterfeiting offenses dating back seven years and not as
Speaker 1: he thought the Malt lottery ticket scam. At first he
Speaker 1: refused to speak a last ditch effort to lay his trial,
Speaker 1: then he claimed he had been mad these last three weeks,
Speaker 1: to which a worthy justice on the bench made answer
Speaker 1: that to his knowledge, he had been so for as
Speaker 1: many years. Challenger eventually pleaded not guilty. His trial took
Speaker 1: place just a few hours later, this time at the
Speaker 1: Old Bailey, the open air courtroom attached to Newgate. The
Speaker 1: judge south Field Level was infamously ruthless and corrupt, and
Speaker 1: was no believer in innocent until proven guilty, which, to
Speaker 1: be fair, wasn't really a thing back then. From the
Speaker 1: moment Challenger was described as notorious by the judge, he
Speaker 1: must have known things were not going to go well.
Speaker 1: He was put upon his trial, wherein there were a
Speaker 1: whole cloud of witnesses against him. Also, William Chalon told
Speaker 1: me that he intended as more late offenses. Once swore
Speaker 1: that she had seen him make some thousand pistols, and
Speaker 1: I told him he would come to be hanged for
Speaker 1: it as price. One another that she had seen him
Speaker 1: do the like by guineas Helena would give Thomas Twin
Speaker 1: that he knew him to have made abundance of money
Speaker 1: of all sorts. I could be saved something very bright
Speaker 1: lined before him, which look a plate. In short, the
Speaker 1: evidence was very plain and positive to all which he
Speaker 1: made but an indifferent defense, but was very saucy in
Speaker 1: the court, affronting mister record a diverse times. Challoner's trial
Speaker 1: probably didn't last more than half an hour. We know
Speaker 1: that he would have had only his own word to
Speaker 1: defend himself. That he would have stood at the bar,
Speaker 1: the cold march air at his back, facing the judge
Speaker 1: and jury on a raised platform in front of him.
Speaker 1: But he would have stood as whit nous after witness.
Speaker 1: Some people he'd once have called friends would place the
Speaker 1: dies and the molds in his hands where the pewter
Speaker 1: shillings or the gilded guineas, and they would say they
Speaker 1: saw him do it. He was innocent. He said he
Speaker 1: was set up. The court did not agree. Act two.
Speaker 1: The end, Challoner didn't take his sentencing well. All those
Speaker 1: times he had slipped through the iron fingers of justice,
Speaker 1: he probably couldn't believe that this was it. After his condemnation,
Speaker 1: he was continually crying out. He struggled and flunked about
Speaker 1: for life like a whale struck with a harping iron,
Speaker 1: so that the warrant for his exit ution being signed,
Speaker 1: he was amongst the number appointed to die. When that
Speaker 1: fatal story reached his ears, he bellowed and ruled worse
Speaker 1: than an Irish woman at a funeral. Nothing but murder, murder,
Speaker 1: murder was to be heard from him. Nothing could be
Speaker 1: thought on to make him take that patiently which he
Speaker 1: must embrace, whether he would or no. And indeed a
Speaker 1: man who makes new conscience in his life may well
Speaker 1: tremble at the approaches of death. Newton received one last
Speaker 1: desperate letter from Chaloner just two days before his execution.
Speaker 1: Oh dear sir, nobody can say of me but you.
Speaker 1: Chaloner had crossed Isaac Newton. He had insulted him, He
Speaker 1: had insulted the crown. Oh God, my god, I shall
Speaker 1: be murdered unless you saved me. Newton rarely forgave, and
Speaker 1: he damn sure I didn't forget. Oh I hope God
Speaker 1: will move your heart with mercy and pity to do
Speaker 1: this thing for me. Newton never wrote back. You're near murdered,
Speaker 1: humble servant, w Challoner. The night before Chaloner was strung
Speaker 1: up on the tyburn tree. The sexton of St. Sepulchro
Speaker 1: Without Newgate, the church just outside Newgate's walls, ring a
Speaker 1: handbell under his window and the windows of the others
Speaker 1: faded to die the next day. As he rang the bell,
Speaker 1: he repeated the same poem that hundreds of other condemned
Speaker 1: people had heard before this night. All you that in
Speaker 1: the condemned hold, do lie, prepare you for to morrow
Speaker 1: you shall die. Watch all and pray. The hour is
Speaker 1: drawing near that you before the Almighty must appear. Examine
Speaker 1: well yourself and time repent that you may not to
Speaker 1: eternal flames be set. And when Saint Sepica's bell tomorrow tones,
Speaker 1: the Lord above have mercy on your soul. Chaloner probably
Speaker 1: didn't sleep. At noon the next day the morning bells
Speaker 1: of St. Sepulchro Raine, Chaloner was ushered into the Condemned
Speaker 1: room at Newgate, where his iron shackles were removed and
Speaker 1: hands bound the simple rope. He was in haggard, probably
Speaker 1: coughing and undoubtedly itching with lice. Shortly afternoon, Jowner left
Speaker 1: Newgate Prison for the last time. He was bundled into
Speaker 1: an open sled dragged by a horse, open so that
Speaker 1: everyone could see him and shame him. The procession paused
Speaker 1: at Saint Seppel. First, the vicar was obligated to once
Speaker 1: again remind them and everyone else watching that they were
Speaker 1: about to die. All good people, pray heartily unto God
Speaker 1: for these poor sinners who are now going to their death,
Speaker 1: for whom this great bell doth toe. You that are
Speaker 1: condemned to die, repent with lamentable tears, Ask mercy of
Speaker 1: the Lord for the salvation of your own souls. Lord,
Speaker 1: have mercy upon you, Christ, have mercy upon you. This
Speaker 1: was the atmosphere that the authorities wanted, This solemnity, this
Speaker 1: quaking terror, this public shame. This was what was supposed
Speaker 1: to keep other people from attempting the same crimes. What
Speaker 1: they got, however, was often more like a carnival. As
Speaker 1: Chaloner and his fellow condemned made their way through the
Speaker 1: city to the Tyburn Tree, people lined the streets and
Speaker 1: hung from the windows. Some people threw things at the
Speaker 1: passing procession, although what they threw depended on the crime.
Speaker 1: When they convicted, were well liked, women blew kisses, and
Speaker 1: according to one contemporary writer, many of the condemned were
Speaker 1: quote on good terms with the mom and jokes were
Speaker 1: exchanged between the men who were going to be hanged
Speaker 1: and the men who deserved to be pickpockets and thieves
Speaker 1: bide their trade throughout the crowds, even as the example
Speaker 1: of what could happen to them if they were caught
Speaker 1: processed a pact. He's going to use bush gold MESA challenger, however,
Speaker 1: was probably not catching kisses or joking. Counterfeiters were often
Speaker 1: among the most reviled of criminals. People hated them for
Speaker 1: making life difficult for everyone else and for undermining trust
Speaker 1: in the currency and the economy. He'd have been cursed
Speaker 1: at hit with mud and rotten food or worse. Though
Speaker 1: the Tyburn Tree was less than three miles from Newgate,
Speaker 1: it took the procession more than two hours to reach it,
Speaker 1: owing to the crowds and to that final stop at
Speaker 1: the pub nearest the tree for one last point, Hey hey,
Speaker 1: hey game. An even larger crowd awaited the notorious Challenger
Speaker 1: when he arrived at the tree. Luckiest were those who
Speaker 1: rented pews and benches nearest the scaffold. Everyone else had
Speaker 1: to stand on tiptoe to witness the hanging. The Tiber
Speaker 1: and Triple tree, three horizontal beams eighteen feet in the air,
Speaker 1: was capable of executing twenty four prisoners all at once,
Speaker 1: but it rarely had so many that you deserve you
Speaker 1: black hearted filling. It's unknown how many others were executed
Speaker 1: the day Challenger was, although he wasn't alone. When the
Speaker 1: moment came. The Challenger stood before the tree and the
Speaker 1: crowd's hands bound, still proclaiming his innocence. Kill them longer,
Speaker 1: I am innocent, Lord, to have mercy upon you, Christ,
Speaker 1: have mercy upon you murdered, but perjury. I need justice
Speaker 1: and pretense of law. And by the warden of the
Speaker 1: mint himself, you know that Challenger didn't get away with it,
Speaker 1: and you know already that Isaac Newton wasn't there to
Speaker 1: watch him, haye, but that anonymous biographer was. Within weeks
Speaker 1: of Challenger's execution, the pamphlet was printed and being sold
Speaker 1: on the same streets which Chaloner had only lately sold
Speaker 1: his counterfeit coins. It concluded, thus lived and thus died,
Speaker 1: A man who had he squared his talent by the
Speaker 1: rules of justice and integrity, might have been useful to
Speaker 1: the Commonwealth. But as he followed only the Dictates of
Speaker 1: Vice was as a rotten member cut off epilogue money
Speaker 1: for nothing. So can I get points of London Pride please,
Speaker 1: and I will come over here and pay with my
Speaker 1: Apple pet. Yeah, okay, I put my past code in here.
Speaker 1: There we go, just like magic, wonderful. Thank you so
Speaker 1: so much. Okay. So I am just bought my point
Speaker 1: at the Devereaux, which is a very historic pub in
Speaker 1: central London. Um. This used to be the Grecian coffee House,
Speaker 1: which was where Isaac Newton, Samuel Peeps so many other
Speaker 1: people would come um to chat about royal society stuff.
Speaker 1: So I'm also sitting in the Isaac Newton booth, and
Speaker 1: I've got a great picture here of Isaac Newton on
Speaker 1: the wall. We've got some some paintings of him and
Speaker 1: his telescope. This is definitely a place that's dedicated to Newton.
Speaker 1: Here at this pub, there aren't newspapers on the table.
Speaker 1: There's pamphlets, mostly because everybody's reading stuff on their phone.
Speaker 1: And the thing that I just paid with this digital
Speaker 1: representation of the money in my bank account, that would
Speaker 1: just be bonkers to the seventeenth century coffee lever or pubgoer.
Speaker 1: But that's all the stuff on the surface, because lots
Speaker 1: of other things haven't changed. Those questions about money, about
Speaker 1: the kinds of things that could be money, whether it's
Speaker 1: bits of hand hammered metal with the King's head on them,
Speaker 1: or paper or lotto tickets, those ideas coalesced into the
Speaker 1: utterly bizarre fact that I can use my phone to
Speaker 1: pay for my points or my dishes of coffee. Can
Speaker 1: you tell that that was like my first time doing it,
Speaker 1: because now I genuinely don't know what my actual waldy
Speaker 1: exists for anyway, A big theme of this podcast has
Speaker 1: been that money is only valuable because we all agree,
Speaker 1: all believe that it has value. We thought gold and
Speaker 1: silver had value, then it does, so it made sense
Speaker 1: to use that as a medium of exchange. Then we
Speaker 1: believe that the word of the government was actually enough.
Speaker 1: In three FDR took the US off the gold standard,
Speaker 1: two years after Britain had already done the same. But
Speaker 1: the fact that US money is backed not by a
Speaker 1: random precious metal, but by a governmental guarantee that's what's
Speaker 1: called fiat currency, is part of the reason that people
Speaker 1: have recently been talking about a trillion dollar coin, a
Speaker 1: one trillion dollar coin, a gazillion dollar debt limit, removing
Speaker 1: Congress from the equation. Those are among democrats proposed solutions
Speaker 1: to the debt ceiling standoff. The idea is that the
Speaker 1: US is once again about to hit its debt ceiling.
Speaker 1: Now remember the national debt thing we invented back in
Speaker 1: episode two, and by we I mean English Parliament. Anyway,
Speaker 1: the US reaching its debt ceiling the amount of money
Speaker 1: that it's allowed to borrow to keep the lights on.
Speaker 1: This happens a bit. The conflict happens when Congress refuses
Speaker 1: to raise the debt ceiling. Then government shutdown ensues. But
Speaker 1: the Treasury Secretary can theoretically solve that. Janet Yellen could
Speaker 1: bypass Congress an issue a single one trillion dollar coin
Speaker 1: made from platinum. She would then deposit it in the
Speaker 1: Federal Reserve just like it's a real account, and thus
Speaker 1: provide the country with enough money to pay its bills,
Speaker 1: no more borrowing necessary. As an one coin that is
Speaker 1: worth more than the GDPs of Greece, Colombia, Poland a
Speaker 1: whole bunch of other countries, a coin that is essentially performing,
Speaker 1: albeit legally the same trick that Challenge did making money
Speaker 1: from nothing. As of this recording, Yellen hasn't and the
Speaker 1: Biden administration very probably won't meant that coin, although the
Speaker 1: deadlock in Congress is certainly making this idea more appealing now.
Speaker 1: Another reason that we're talking about the trillion dollar coin,
Speaker 1: beyond the marre fact that because of the currency it's possible,
Speaker 1: is that other thing that was becoming important in Newton's time,
Speaker 1: mass media. The trillion dollar coin idea was floated by
Speaker 1: the White House privately back in two thousand and eleven,
Speaker 1: but it wouldn't really be a thing now if it
Speaker 1: hadn't been given air on multiple platforms. Paul Krugman, in
Speaker 1: an opinion for The New York Times Bloomberg Podcasts, declaring
Speaker 1: it's not a joke hashtag meant the coin, among many others,
Speaker 1: that these kinds of debates about monetary policy shouldn't just
Speaker 1: happen amongst the bunch of old, rich white dudes who
Speaker 1: make the policy most definitely has it's antecedents and pamphlets
Speaker 1: like Peter Bondo's humble suggestions to the Money Here's the
Speaker 1: money coin with the m O canal to be made
Speaker 1: exactly a long and William Chaloner's proposals to fix the
Speaker 1: coins now England have been more grieved with clipton counterfeit money.
Speaker 1: So yeah, more oxygen for good ideas and boo, more
Speaker 1: oxygen for bad ones. So this trillion dollar coin is
Speaker 1: it a good idea or a bad idea? Janet Yellen
Speaker 1: certainly thinks it's a bad idea. She said so. And
Speaker 1: if your entire currency is based on trust, magic ng
Speaker 1: money out of literally nothing doesn't do much to shore
Speaker 1: up that trust. It doesn't help the inflation situation, and
Speaker 1: it also rather uncomfortably blurs the lines between monetary policy,
Speaker 1: which is meant to be independent of politics, and fiscal policy,
Speaker 1: which is laid out by elected politicians. On the other hand,
Speaker 1: if anyone wants to get that old counterfeit forged fired up,
Speaker 1: now is the time. All this talk about trust and
Speaker 1: made up coins and national debt has me thinking, what
Speaker 1: if you don't want to trust the government anymore? Could
Speaker 1: something else be money even if it's not backed by
Speaker 1: that governmental guarantee. How about a bunch of code? How
Speaker 1: about cryptocurrency? Cryptocurrencies are exciting because they're decentralized not tied
Speaker 1: to or controlled by a government or a central bank.
Speaker 1: The first cryptocurrencies started appearing in the mid nine es,
Speaker 1: but e cashed had a hard time getting off the
Speaker 1: ground because you can be all, this is money, trust
Speaker 1: us people, but people won't unless they have a compelling
Speaker 1: reason to. And then came Bitcoin, which solved one of
Speaker 1: the main problems of digital currency, making it trustable face.
Speaker 1: Bitcoin uses blockchain, which is a huge chain linked database
Speaker 1: that acts as a ledger of transactions proof of value. Notably,
Speaker 1: blockchain can be used for any data really, not just
Speaker 1: financial services. The database is maintained by many different people,
Speaker 1: so there's no central agency that monitors or controls it.
Speaker 1: And it's open, transparent, immutable, but it's not completely bulletproof.
Speaker 1: As WILLIAMS. Chaloner recognized back in stur Si, a big
Speaker 1: seismic change in the landscape of really important stuff like
Speaker 1: money is also going to throw up new opportunities for
Speaker 1: exploiting that landscape. Tom Levinson and when you do something
Speaker 1: new in the world of finance, some people will understand
Speaker 1: it better than others. Unscrupulous people who understand it well
Speaker 1: will take advantage of those others. When it's something really new,
Speaker 1: and interesting. Um. Not even the people who think they
Speaker 1: know with the best you know, will grasp all the assibilities,
Speaker 1: including the negative possibilities, the unintended consequences. And that's something
Speaker 1: that recurs over and over again. Challenger forged bank notes
Speaker 1: and lottery tickets because these were new, weird, untried things
Speaker 1: and he could, and some modern day challengers are basically
Speaker 1: doing the same thing. Consider the story of one Coin.
Speaker 1: Back in one Coin was going to be bigger than Bitcoin.
Speaker 1: Founder Ruga Ignatova, from the stage at Wembley Arena in
Speaker 1: North London to thousands of hyped up investors, promised that
Speaker 1: it would be. This network was created to become and
Speaker 1: to fuel the growth of one coin, which I strongly
Speaker 1: believe will be the number one cryptocurrency worldwide. What one
Speaker 1: coin actually was was a massive multi level marketing scan
Speaker 1: them better known as a Ponzi scheme. One coin didn't
Speaker 1: have what Bitcoin did, a blockchain, and without it, the
Speaker 1: numbers the quote value of those one coins were meaningless.
Speaker 1: One coin itself could say it was worth whatever they
Speaker 1: wanted it to be. Now, no one knew this, though,
Speaker 1: so people invested in it. Lots of people Exactly how
Speaker 1: much money one Coin took in It's hard to say.
Speaker 1: Some reports say four billion euros. Authors put it as
Speaker 1: high as fifteen billion euros. This was money from regular people,
Speaker 1: people who thought they were making a wise investment in
Speaker 1: an up and coming market. On October two, thousand seventeen,
Speaker 1: doctor Rugia Ignatova boarded a flight from Sophia, Bulgaria to Athens,
Speaker 1: and that was the last anyone saw or heard of
Speaker 1: her or the billions of euros she stole. Again. Kaig
Speaker 1: Natova more or less got away with it. Where is
Speaker 1: Isaac Newton when you need him him? All? Right? Well,
Speaker 1: Newton might have sniffed out this kind of fraud or
Speaker 1: he might have gotten caught up in it, just like
Speaker 1: he did back in seventeen twenty. So what made one
Speaker 1: Coin plausible, what made people think it was real, is
Speaker 1: because the idea of making a lot of money very
Speaker 1: quickly is always appealing, but also because of the financial
Speaker 1: instruments that were emerging in Newton's time. And Newton may
Speaker 1: have really understood the principles of things like representational money
Speaker 1: and speculation, but that didn't stop him from getting burned
Speaker 1: and what would be called the south Sea Bubble, so
Speaker 1: a bubble is when an asset or commodity suddenly spikes
Speaker 1: in value far above its quote real value. That's the
Speaker 1: bubble inflating, and then justice suddenly pops value plummeting. I
Speaker 1: think the dot com bubble or housing. Why bubbles happen
Speaker 1: is a big part of behavioral economics, but suffice to
Speaker 1: say they're hard to predict and even harder to ride out.
Speaker 1: The south Sea Bubble did have approximate cause, however. In
Speaker 1: seventeen twenty, the House of Lords gave the south Sea Company,
Speaker 1: a joint stock company, a monopoly on trade with South
Speaker 1: America in exchange for seven million pounds to finance a
Speaker 1: war with you guessed it, France. The money also went
Speaker 1: to underwrite the National Debt, that thing that had just
Speaker 1: been created in sixteen ninety four with the Bank of England.
Speaker 1: Overnight shares in the south Sea Company exploded in value.
Speaker 1: I think, like the whole game stop situation, but Poland,
Speaker 1: the national debt and a bunch of literal big wigs,
Speaker 1: and you've got the idea. Tom Levinson explains, the bubble
Speaker 1: was just this huge social and cultural carnival for a while,
Speaker 1: and people went money and the fabulous cartoons and satirical
Speaker 1: poems and nasty moralistic plays and all this the center
Speaker 1: around this way. Greed and money mania took over England
Speaker 1: at the time, but lots of people got snared in it.
Speaker 1: The problem was the south Sea Company wasn't really doing
Speaker 1: any actual trading, and soon the bubble popped. The richest
Speaker 1: man in England, to Duke to Portland, lost his shirt
Speaker 1: and ultimately his life to speculations in Sausia bubble. And
Speaker 1: to me, the most striking thing is that, you know,
Speaker 1: the one person in Europe you could count on to
Speaker 1: understand the underlying mathematics of the financial transaction being proposed
Speaker 1: in Sausia bubble, person who really really knew, you know,
Speaker 1: how to calculate that. Yeah, in fact, the things that
Speaker 1: were happening to south Sea stock were just unsustainable. That
Speaker 1: man was Isaac Newton, and he lost a ton in
Speaker 1: the bubble. He too got caught in the emotions of
Speaker 1: the moment and the desire for wealth in the most
Speaker 1: in some ways personally humilia eating way. You know, he
Speaker 1: had had investments in the south Sea Company from for
Speaker 1: many years before and it made a good tidy, respectable
Speaker 1: profit on it. And when the bubble started inflating in
Speaker 1: UH in the spring of seventeen. He looked at his
Speaker 1: growing profit and said, you know, I've made enough money
Speaker 1: and sold well the share. But the bubble continued to
Speaker 1: expand and it went to more than double the price
Speaker 1: to be sold his shares. That and that apparently drove
Speaker 1: Newton bunkers. So he went back in at the very
Speaker 1: top of the market. And he kept buying for another
Speaker 1: two months as the market hovered near its top. And
Speaker 1: you know, his last purchase of South Seas shares was
Speaker 1: like two weeks before the crash and uh and he
Speaker 1: lost tens of thousands of pounds, which is millions of
Speaker 1: pounds in twenty one century money. Now, don't be too
Speaker 1: sad for poor Newton. He wasn't left destitute. He still
Speaker 1: had a very good gig with the Royal Mint, although
Speaker 1: he was no longer the warden. Not long after Challenger's execution,
Speaker 1: Thomas Neil, the useless master of the Mint, died. Newton,
Speaker 1: who had basically done his job and more during the recoinage,
Speaker 1: was offered the position he started on Christmas Day. No
Speaker 1: more catching for him, although he probably didn't mind. Though
Speaker 1: the two positions were on similar levels of authority and salary.
Speaker 1: The master also took a fee for every pound of
Speaker 1: metal coined at the mint. Newton had done that for years,
Speaker 1: squirreling it away in besting some doing very well for himself,
Speaker 1: but obviously losing his shirt was pretty irritating. He apparently
Speaker 1: said to his niece, who he was very close to,
Speaker 1: and you know, I can predict the motions of the
Speaker 1: heavenly bodies, but not the madness of crowds, madness of
Speaker 1: the people. I think it's the word. And you know
Speaker 1: what's funny about that quote is, of course he was
Speaker 1: one of the people. He couldn't predict his own madness,
Speaker 1: but that was what so galled him. He lost control.
Speaker 1: You know, this famously tight le wound and regid personality
Speaker 1: lost his reasoning mind around money for a while. But
Speaker 1: the whole speculation thing, the money being made handover fist,
Speaker 1: the growing economy that had some other attendant effects. Now
Speaker 1: this isn't exactly causal or linear, but here's some of
Speaker 1: what was happening. People, thanks to these exciting financial instruments,
Speaker 1: had more money. More money meant quite literally more problems.
Speaker 1: The more stuff and property people had, the more, they
Speaker 1: wanted to protect it and others wanted to steal it.
Speaker 1: In the years after Newton was running his operations, it
Speaker 1: was clear that something more needed to be done to
Speaker 1: deter crime, especially property crime. But as we've said over
Speaker 1: and over, there was no agency charged with dealing with crime.
Speaker 1: So what's the eighteenth century lawmaker to do in the
Speaker 1: face of rising property crime? Lee Goal Historian Harry Potter
Speaker 1: explains that was when you really got the growth of
Speaker 1: capital punishment being used routinely for minor property offenses. Because
Speaker 1: John John Rotfron some sixteen nineties said that the sole
Speaker 1: end of government is the preservation of property, and property
Speaker 1: was undefended already a significant number of crimes were punishable
Speaker 1: by death. Counterfeiting obviously one of them. But after the
Speaker 1: Waltham Black Act of seventeen twenty three, upwards of two
Speaker 1: hundred offenses such a pickpocketing, shoplifting, arson attempting, arson poaching
Speaker 1: all became capital offenses. But even with all those new
Speaker 1: capital crimes, through the nineteenth century, counterfeiting was one of
Speaker 1: the top reasons people were executed in England and Wales
Speaker 1: between eighteen o five and eighteen eighteen. One out of
Speaker 1: every five executed criminals was a convicted forger or counterfeiter.
Speaker 1: That stature shot up to one out of three in
Speaker 1: London and the adjoining Middlesex County. The act was repealed
Speaker 1: about a century later, after it was clear that the
Speaker 1: threat of death didn't actually do much to deter crime. Policeman,
Speaker 1: on their hand, could be helpful, maybe maybe not. For
Speaker 1: all Isaac Newton's great work and stamping out counterfeit coins,
Speaker 1: fake coin makers didn't just suddenly stop production because Isaac
Speaker 1: Newton was on the case. Capital punishment didn't work. Policing
Speaker 1: only sort of worked. Counterfeiting isn't called the second oldest
Speaker 1: profession for nothing. Back in two thousand seventeen, we all
Speaker 1: of us living in Britain, we're supposed to trade in
Speaker 1: our old one pound coins. These coins had been around
Speaker 1: since and they read around the edges decas at Taman,
Speaker 1: But that decoration and a safe guard had evidently not
Speaker 1: been enough. The reason we needed new coins was because,
Speaker 1: according to an audit in two thousand fourteen, as much
Speaker 1: as three of the coins in circulation were fakes. The
Speaker 1: new twelve sided one pound coin is the most secure
Speaker 1: coin in the world. It has a number of features
Speaker 1: that make it much more difficult to counterfeit. It has
Speaker 1: a bimetallic composition of two colors, with a gold color
Speaker 1: nickel brass outer and a silver colored nickel plated inner.
Speaker 1: It has a latent image on the front. The changes
Speaker 1: from a pound symbol to the number one when the
Speaker 1: coin is seen from different angles. The coins design reflects
Speaker 1: United Kingdom's heritage and superb craftsmanship. The new high tech
Speaker 1: coin was meant to be impossible to fake, except it wasn't.
Speaker 1: Within a year of the coin's release, reports of fake
Speaker 1: twelve sided coins began circulating. These figs were less detailed,
Speaker 1: less precise than the real thing, but they did the trick.
Speaker 1: It almost didn't matter if they were real or not,
Speaker 1: as long as they were being traded. Now. There was
Speaker 1: no warden of the Royal Mint at the time of
Speaker 1: that recoinage. I don't know. Maybe if there had been,
Speaker 1: I wouldn't still have a few worthless old pound coins
Speaker 1: jangling and change cups. The job that Newton had done
Speaker 1: so admirably was actually dissolved in eighty nine. Newton lived
Speaker 1: in London and remained Master of the Mint until the
Speaker 1: year he died. Seventy seven. He had been knighted by
Speaker 1: Queen Anne back in seventeen o five, not surprisingly for
Speaker 1: his services to science or the Mint, but just because
Speaker 1: of contemporary politics. By the way, that's why we didn't
Speaker 1: refer to him as Sir Isaac, because he wasn't one yet.
Speaker 1: He was buried at Westminster Abbey alongside kings and queens
Speaker 1: and martyrs and heroes, the great and the good. Newton's
Speaker 1: legacy as a scientist or that didn't actually exist until
Speaker 1: eighteen thirty three, by the way, has far outshined his
Speaker 1: legacy as the able administrator of the mentor even as
Speaker 1: the bane of London's counterfeiting games. It's the scientist Newton
Speaker 1: whose statue stands well hunches really in the courtyard of
Speaker 1: the British Library, and whose portrait hangs in the Newton
Speaker 1: Corner at the Devereaux Pub with his prisons and telescope
Speaker 1: and apple. It's that Newton who appeared on the one
Speaker 1: pound note, in big curly wig atop his head, the
Speaker 1: Principia open on his lap. Currency acts as symbolic representation
Speaker 1: not only of monetary value, but also social values. It
Speaker 1: tells a story about the people who use it. That's
Speaker 1: why we put pictures on it. Newton's portrait on the
Speaker 1: one pound note, traded for pints of beer and dishes
Speaker 1: of coffee stashed in purses and wallets dropped in the streets,
Speaker 1: further cemented his legacy as a sign tist. In two
Speaker 1: thousand seventeen, the Royal Mint commemorated Sir Isaac Newton's three
Speaker 1: d and seventy fifth birthday with, of course, a coin,
Speaker 1: and once again it was Newton the scientist, not Newton
Speaker 1: the cop or Newton the master of the mint who
Speaker 1: was represented. Now, I know you can't fit a life
Speaker 1: on a coin, but still maybe a coin is a
Speaker 1: fitting testament to a man who not only laid the
Speaker 1: groundwork for how we understand our universe, but who also
Speaker 1: rescued English money from clippers and coiners. The coin piece,
Speaker 1: featuring a map of the solar system, was never circulated,
Speaker 1: but you can still buy it on one of those
Speaker 1: collector websites or eBay for well a lot more than
Speaker 1: fifty bents. Just make sure it's the real deal. Newton's
Speaker 1: Law is a production of I Heart Radio. It's written
Speaker 1: and hosted by me Linda Rodriguez, mcrabbie. Our senior producer
Speaker 1: is Ryan Murdoch. Our producer is Emily Marina. Our executive
Speaker 1: producer is Jason English. Original music by Alee McCoy with
Speaker 1: editing help from Mary Do, Sound design and mixing by
Speaker 1: Jeremy Thall, Research and fact checking by me and Joscelyn Sears.
Speaker 1: Our show logo is designed by Lucy Quintanilla. Big thanks
Speaker 1: to our voice actors throughout the series, Keith Plumbing, Mark McDonald,
Speaker 1: Robert Jack Paul Tinto, Ruthie Stevens, Emma Falcons and our
Speaker 1: favorite street urchins Austin Rodriguez mcgraby and Edwin Rodriguez mcgraby.
Speaker 1: I got the Pots as always special thanks to our
Speaker 1: experts Chris Barker, Dr. Patricia farre, Tom Levinson, Joe ed
Speaker 1: Raymond and Harry Potter. Special thanks to mangest Hate Cadur,
Speaker 1: Fineflex Sound Studios and the Modern Royal Mint. If you
Speaker 1: enjoyed Newton's Law, please leave us a rating and a comment.
Speaker 1: You might also enjoy other I Heart originals such as
Speaker 1: Black Cowboys and Operation Midnight. Climax. In our next I
Speaker 1: Heard original series will transport you to the nineties. The
Speaker 1: nineties nineties to find out what happened when the world's
Speaker 1: biggest movie star took over a small town in Idaho.
Speaker 1: Keep an eye out for Haleywood on the I Heart
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Speaker 1: And thanks for listening.