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HK-758 varieties - Unlisted gilt among others

Is there a way to tell when the gilting was done on a medal? Were they made with the gilt or did someone else add the gilt at a later date?

It is difficult to tell for sure, but I would think that if the plating was added after striking, it would usually be thinner and might have a matt appearance. The gilt on the piece shown here was most probably added after striking. I know that lightly plated silver pieces with the plating added after striking are sometimes described as having a "silver wash". I cannot remember off hand if I have ever heard of lightly gold plated pieces as being described as having a "gold wash", but that might be an appropriate way of describing them. One piece that comes to mind is a Wilson dollar that I own that I bought some years ago.It is gold plated, and if you look closely at it under a glass you can see a matt-like surface. Also,there is a bagmark on the piece, and yes the matt goes down into the bagmark, so obviously the plating was done after the bagmark, and thus the plating was done after striking. It may have been plated in order to mimic one of the gold Wilson dollar, but it is not very convincing. I am always suspicious of a plated piece that is rarely found that way.

Jeff and I recently visited Medallic Art and we asked about plating before and after striking. Rob at Medallic Art thought that medals would be plated after striking as the plating on a raw planchet would stretch during striking and likely leave gaps in the plated surface. Plating a medal with a thin layer of gold would preserve the details of the surface whereas heavy plating would tend to dull or obscure minute details. Terminology is interesting. Plating is an process involving the use of electrical current. Gilting (and maybe what is meant by wash) is a chemical deposition process. -- Okay, someone who knows more about this than me can correct my rough definition, but that's the way I understand the terms.

This piece is interesting in that it is often found with planchet flaws and/or delamination issues... so much so, that I own one quite nice proof piece AND a crummy flawed piece.  Attached is a photo of one Jeff has for sale with problems... but worth collecting none the less.....

Uploaded files:
  • HK-758-Delamination.jpeg

I read an article on this piece that said a wooden crate was filled with them and placed in a basement after the unveiling and a while later New Orleans had one of its floods and the crate was left for sometime after the flood and did much like sunken except no salt and the standing water dropped but the so calleds just started disintegrating for a long period

That would explain a lot

Here's a bronze one that sold a few years ago in iCollector ... a lot of bidding for it... I was very much outbid...

Here's a link to the 2017 status removal:

https://www.npr.org/2017/05/20/529232823/with-lee-statues-removal-another-battle-of-new-orleans-comes-to-a-close

Uploaded files:
  • HK-758a-NO-Bronze.jpg