The World Coin: Matthew Boulton and His Industrialisation of Coinage

Abstract

This review traces the industrialisation of coinage, in light of the contributions of its main British proponent, Matthew Boulton (1728–1809). Boulton's primary concern was to provide the new wage-earning public with an adequate supply of copper coinage which could not be counterfeited. He would therefore stress new methods of production, particularly the introduction of the steam engine into the minting process. The coming of this new motive force would, in turn, change the form of the coin itself. High relief would be abandoned for the shallow relief we now see on our coins. A restraining edge collar would have to be employed. Dies could now be mass-produced, or hubbed, assuring a consistency in design which would also be a major anticounterfeiting safeguard.Boulton had entered into partnership with James Watt, inventor of the improved steam engine, in the mid-1770s. By the end of the 1780s, Boulton had turned his colleague's new device to the production of money: beginning with tokens and orders for British possessions, Boulton, Watt & Company had received a royal patent for British copper coin by 1797.By now, the firm was fabricating and selling entire mints as well, ensuring that the new type of coin would become a worldwide phenomenon. Boulton, Watt exported mints to Russia and Denmark in the first decade of the 19th century (refurbishing the Royal Mint at the same time), to Brazil in the second, and to Mexico and India in the third and fourth decades, meanwhile continuing to strike coins and tokens for dozens of clients at home and abroad. The firm of Boulton, Watt & Company closed its doors at mid-century, but its place in the story of numismatics, and the immortality of the man who had founded it, had already long been secure.