The selectmen may authorize and direct the town clerk to make, in suitable books, true copies of any of the public records of the town which have become so faded, worn out or otherwise defaced that in their judgment it is necessary they should be copied in order to insure the preservation of a proper record of the facts or instruments recorded. The town clerk shall attach thereto certificates of their correctness, and showing when, by whom and under what authority they were made, and shall also preserve the originals. Such copies shall have the same force and effect as the originals, and copies made therefrom may be used in evidence the same as if made from the originals, without showing the loss of the originals.