- Museum number
- G3,IP.722
- Description
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Silver medal. (whole)
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Bust of Sir Isaac Newton, left, hair short, in shirt with open collar and mantle round the shoulders. (obverse)
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Science, with wings on her head, seated, left, leans upon a table and holds a diagram of the solar system. (reverse)
- Production date
- 1727
- Dimensions
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Diameter: 51.000 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
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- Curator's comments
- Medallic Illustrations 2, published in 1885, states:
Common.
Sir Isaac Newton, the eminent mathematician and natural philosopher, born at Woolsthorpe in Lincolnshire, 25 December 1642, was educated at Cambridge, of which University he was elected mathematical professor in 1667, and in 1672 its representative in Parliament. In 1699 he was appointed Master of the Mint, and during his long tenure of that office, which continued till his death, he effected many improvements in the coinage. He was President of the Royal Society from 1703 till his death, being each year re-elected, and in 1705 he received the honour of knighthood. He died 20 March, 1726-7, and was buried in Westminster Abbey.
The legend on the reverse alludes to Newton's sagacity in penetrating the primary causes which governed the motion of the planets, and the device to his elucidation of the solar system. The date is after the old style.
See Snelling, Thomas, ‘Thirty-nine Plates of English Medals’, London, 1766, xxix. 1; Köhler, Johann David, ‘Historische Münz-Belustigung’, Nürnberg, 1729-1750, XIV. 57; Gaetani, Pier Antonio, Count., ‘Museum Mazzuchellianum seu Numismata Virorum doctrina præstantium, &c.’, II. Pl. clxiii. 5.
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
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Exhibited:
2018-2019, 5 Oct - 7 Apr, BM G69a, Witnesses: émigré medallists in Britain
- Associated events
- Commemoration of: Death of Sir Isaac Newton, 1727
- Acquisition date
- 1825
- Department
- Money and Medals
- Registration number
- G3,IP.722
- C&M catalogue number
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MB2 (Medallic Illustrations 2) (469) (83)