CRISES RACKED THE INSTITUTION to which Newton moved in the spring of 1696. Indeed, the Mint was an institution within an institution within an institution, all three of which faced crises. The recoinage engaged every pinch of energy at the Mint. The Treasury, of which the Mint was a relatively minor department, devoted equal energy to devising temporary expedients and new machinery to cope with overwhelming financial needs caused by war with France. The English state and the revolutionary settlement it embodied balanced precariously on the outcome of the Treasury's efforts. In 1696, it was not clear that the financial demands of the war would be met. If they were not, if national bankruptcy ensued, the revolutionary settlement would undoubtedly collapse before a second Stuart restoration. In the larger crises of the government and its finances Newton was not involved beyond his concern as an Englishman committed to the revolution.

The narrower monetary crisis, which bedeviled the financial crisis by reaching a climax when it could least be tolerated, occupied him almost completely for more than two years. As the debasement of silver coinage reached disastrous proportions, the government under the leadership of Newton's friend Charles Montague, then Chancellor of the Exchequer, began to consider a recoinage as the only effective remedy.

In 1695, the government sought what advice it could find. In the absence of a body of recognized experts on such matters, the Regency Council resolved to consult a number of leading intellectuals and London financiers, “Mr. Locke, Mr. D'Avenant, Sir Christopher Wren, Dr. Wallis, Dr. Newton, Mr. Heathcote, Sir Josiah Child, and Mr. Asgill, a lawyer.” Along with most of the others, Newton replied in the autumn of 1695 with a short essay “concerning the Amendmt of English Coyns.” A general consensus among the respondents, in which he shared, accepted the need to recoin. By December, the decision was made; on 21 January 1696, the definitive recoinage act passed through Parliament. The first melting of old coins at the Exchequer commenced the following day. Hence the recoinage was both decided and inaugurated well before Newton's appointment as warden of the Mint. Nor did his opinion on the recoinage determine the policy, which differed in a minor way from what he recommended. In no sense did Newton bear responsibility for the recoinage. He did accept responsibility for carrying it through to completion.