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In Vanity Fair, Christopher Hitchens writes on Sir Isaac Newton, who not only had some rather bizarre ideas on gravity, but some truly whacked-out thoughts on sex and religion, and of course, gold.

In contrast with this clarity and purity, however, Newton spent much of his time dwelling in a self-generated fog of superstition and crankery. He believed in the lost art of alchemy, whereby base metals can be transmuted into gold, and the surviving locks of his hair show heavy traces of lead and mercury in his system, suggesting that he experimented upon himself in this fashion, too.

But his gold obsession didn't end there. Newton also served as Master of the Mint and he had to deal with one of the great questions that men have pondered for centuries--what's the correct price ratio of gold to silver.

Great Britain didn't formally adopt the gold standard until 1819, but it was in effect set over one hundred years before when Newton overvalued gold. For the previous 500 years, Britain had been on the silver standard.

Posted by edelfenbein at April 21, 2008 11:07 AM