flea market find, please comment, see pics

archeonist · Jul 18, 2012

Hi all, today I bought this dish wich has a gold plated foot. I payed one dollar for it. The plating is really thick, and at some points i can pull it of with my nail.
What do you guys think of it? Interesting or not?
I am wondering how to process this object. The base metal is probably brass I think.

goldenchild · Jul 18, 2012

Like your calculator, I bet you can get more selling the item as is.

Harold_V · Jul 19, 2012

Have you checked the base with a magnet? The reason I ask is that I expect it's not gold plated, but steel, brass plated. Could be wrong, and may well be.

If it is, indeed, brass based, not steel, it may be gold, but don't bet on it. Do a test with nitric, to see if it dissolves. If it has been brass plated, it may well be lacquered, so test from the back side of the removed foil, to see if some remains after a drop of acid has done its work.

Harold

archeonist · Jul 19, 2012

Hi Harold, thanks for your tip! The base is nonmagnetic so I think ist brass. However the backside of the foil is gray so there is another metal involved. Currently I dont have nitric here but I will check it later.

Harold_V · Jul 19, 2012

The gray color and being non-magnetic is encouraging.

Gold plating is generally accomplished on top of a barrier, to prevent migration of the gold to the base metal. That phenomenon is well documented. The barrier is commonly nickel, although it generally is shiny, not dull like the exposed area that is visible in your posted picture.

Good luck---I'm keeping a good thought that it might be gold. I still have my doubts, however. It will be interesting to see what it is.

(My doubts are based on the fact that the bowl is pressed glass, not cut glass).

Harold

rusty · Jul 19, 2012

Harold_V said:
My doubts are based on the fact that the bowl is pressed glass, not cut glass.

Harold

Good call Harold.

goldsilverpro · Jul 19, 2012

The casting is very rough in areas which leads me to believe it may be zinc based die cast. I've seen many similar items made from this. In every case it was cheap junk. If so, there probably isn't much more than $1 in gold.