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be the best possible so as not to be imitated by common Artists but also the coin should possess certain manifest peculiarities in it's formation which cannot be attained by the Presses & Machines hitherto used for coining, nor by any but such as are contrived & appropriated to these purposes & which are too expensive, & require too large an Apparatus & too much mechanical knowledge in the construction to be executed either with secrecy, or by the abilities of such persons as employ themselves in counterfeiting coin.
Mr. Boulton flatters himself that his apparatus, and his coin possess the abovementioned requisites for the prevention of counterfeiting. For his machinery altho' originally very expensive, can manufacture fine Coin, cheaper than the worst that is now made, & consequently no Temptation will be left for counterfeiting, but by diminishing the Size & by debasing the Metal: but besides that these Alterations will be pretty obvious, the Peculiarities on which the Difference depends between his Coin & the Counterfeits, are,
1. His coin are perfectly round.
2. They are all precisely equal in Diameter.
3. The Work is exactly concentric to the Edge.
4. An inscription or ornament is put round the edge, either indented, or in relief, or partly one & partly the other: & this Inscription is to be struck by the same Blow that gives impression to the Faces; whereas the common mode of making Ornaments on the Edge is by a separate well known operation called Milling, which is much more easily imitated.
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