Making coins using hand-powered presses like these at London's Tower Mint was a very slow process. Matthew Boulton's new steam-powered coining presses could produce 50,000 coins per hour.
Image: Science Museum/SSPL
A crisis of currency
As his business interests expanded, so Matthew Boulton applied steam power in unexplored fields, such as making coins.
The difficulties of minting coinage by hand meant that in the 1700s, Britain was short of small change. By 1753, it was estimated that half the copper coins in circulation were counterfeit.
Alarmed by this shortage, Matthew Boulton devised a steam-powered mint that could produce 1200 tons of coins every year.
As well as powering factories, steam engines helped secure Britain's finances.
