Why is this batch file producing extra, unexpected, unwanted characters?

Question

I'm trying to use the following batch script to concatenate some files together:

copy NUL bin\translate.js
for %%f in (source\Libraries\sprintf.js, source\translate-namespace.js, source\util.js, source\translator.js, source\translate.js) do (
    type %%f >> bin\translate.js
    echo. >> bin\translate.js
)

However, when I do this, an extra character seems to be printed at the end of each file. When I view the file in ASCII, it is interpreted as these three characters: 

Why is this happening? What can I do to fix it?

Answer 1

The DOS copy command works like the UNIX cat command. That is, you can list multiple source files and one destination file, seperated with + signs.

copy source\Libraries\sprintf.js+source\translate-namespace.js bin\translate.js

Answer 2

The  looks like a unicode byte order mark. Is it possible to start with files that are stored without the byte mark? I am not aware of any command line commands that can remove the mark.