A Life Forged in Iron, Marked by Coinage: The Singular Story of William Wood William Wood (1671-1730) occupies a fascinatingly unusual place in the annals of 18th-century England. He wasn’t a painter, sculptor, or architect—the typical subjects of art historical study—but an ironmaster and mintmaster whose life intersected with the burgeoning world of commerce, colonial ambition, and even public scandal. Born in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, to a family of modest means – his father was a silkweaver – Wood rose through the ranks of industrial England, becoming a significant figure in the production…