So for right now I’m leaving these beauties on the back burner, I’d appreciate anyone’s input on these types of boards!
From what I can tell from the picture, they seem to be ENIG plated. I personally don't consider these "gold plated".... think of it as a wash coat (for lack of a better term). The gold doesn't generally come off as foils but rather as a black powder. That would make the plating very low yield. I've always had a love/hate view of these types of boards, to pretty to throw away but terrible to process....At least at a hobbyist level.
From Wikipedia:
"Electroless nickel immersion gold (ENIG or ENi/IAu), also known as immersion gold (Au), chemical Ni/Au or soft gold, is a metal plating process used in the manufacture of
printed circuit boards (PCBs), to avoid oxidation and improve the solderability of copper contacts and
plated through-holes. It consists of an
electroless nickel plating, covered with a thin layer of
gold, which protects the nickel from oxidation.
The gold is typically applied by quick immersion in a solution containing gold salts. Some of the nickel is oxidized to Ni2+ while the gold is reduced to metallic state. A variant of this process adds a thin layer of
electroless palladium over the nickel, a process known by the acronym ENEPIG.
ENIG can be applied before or after the
solder mask, also known as overall or selective chemical Ni/Au, respectively. The latter type is more common and significantly cheaper as less gold is needed to cover only the
solder pads."
