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Posted 12/01/2015 11:53 pm
John - If this coin is an electroplate (which I will admit it looks like in some of the photos), it would go along way toward proving that the coin is not a pattern.
I was operating from my old notes when I said my example of the 1840 A Do coin was Sheffield plate. The note is thin Sheffield plate. I do not have that coin here it is in the bank. So I have not been able to confirm my opinion.
When I did the book on Portraits, I used 1830 as a very conservative, but convenient, date for the cut - off between older methods and the introduction of several new technologies associated with counterfeiting.
In order to refine those dates for my second book on Cap and Ray types I have been trying to tie down the actual dates when these technologies were introduced.
This research points date about 10 years later for the development of electro-plating.
Counterfeiters use of electro-plate for their work does not date back before 1840. Electroplate was only developed in that year. It became popular with counterfeiters after the Civil War.
Most reference texts are not precise but if the first uses of electro-plate in an industrial setting date to 1840 it is unlikely that it was being used to plate patterns in that same year.
More research is needed of course, but as of right now - it would have to be Sheffield Plate to have any chance of being an actual pattern.
Of course, I believe it is a simple counterfeit in any even based on the way the coin was made. It that was the quality level available for a pattern I don't know how the factory would expect to sell anything.
I was operating from my old notes when I said my example of the 1840 A Do coin was Sheffield plate. The note is thin Sheffield plate. I do not have that coin here it is in the bank. So I have not been able to confirm my opinion.
When I did the book on Portraits, I used 1830 as a very conservative, but convenient, date for the cut - off between older methods and the introduction of several new technologies associated with counterfeiting.
In order to refine those dates for my second book on Cap and Ray types I have been trying to tie down the actual dates when these technologies were introduced.
This research points date about 10 years later for the development of electro-plating.
Counterfeiters use of electro-plate for their work does not date back before 1840. Electroplate was only developed in that year. It became popular with counterfeiters after the Civil War.
Most reference texts are not precise but if the first uses of electro-plate in an industrial setting date to 1840 it is unlikely that it was being used to plate patterns in that same year.
More research is needed of course, but as of right now - it would have to be Sheffield Plate to have any chance of being an actual pattern.
Of course, I believe it is a simple counterfeit in any even based on the way the coin was made. It that was the quality level available for a pattern I don't know how the factory would expect to sell anything.
