Matthew Boulton: grandfather of modern coinage

John Winter · Oct 17, 2014

The 18th century Birmingham industrialist Matthew Boulton was honoured with a memorial in Westminster Abbey today.
I lost a blog post on Boulton, but this BBC post by Caroline Gall more than makes up for it:

BBC News - Matthew Boulton: The grandfather of modern coinage

John Winter · Oct 18, 2014

You may find it strange that copper coins were forged. Because this thread is all about Boulton, I've chosen one of my forged cartwheel pennies to show you. They were well-designed and difficult to counterfeit ... and this attempt proves that!

Not very convincing, eh? Not even copper, but a lead composite, but you'd get away offering it in a busy bar on a Saturday night. Boulton's Soho Mint struck coins for the East India Company, Sierra Leone and Russia, while producing high-quality planchets, or blank coins, to be struck by national mints elsewhere. For example, the firm sent over 20 million blanks to Philadelphia, to be struck into cents and half-cents by the United States Mint. So, there you have an American connection.

BTW ... is there anybody out there? Even a comment saying 'you talk crap John', would be better than a deafening silence. :laughing7: