In celebration of the 375th anniversary of Newton's birth and the 330th anniversary of the publication of Principia Mathematica, The Royal Mint released a series of coins, including this piedfort silver proof Fifty Pence. The scientist had spent over twenty years composing it, and his work presented a mathematical description of the universe which was revolutionary.
Newton's 'Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy' has been called the most influential book on physics ever. The story of Sir Isaac Newton gaining a flash of inspiration while sitting under a tree watching an apple fall is famous today, but it was the physicists realisation that the force that made the apple fall downwards was the same force responsible for planetary orbit that is most important.
