Quote from Pioneer on January 5, 2014, 12:01 pm

I ran across a gilt version of HK-450 recently and purchased it. I'm somewhat more interested in owning a high grade HK-450 copper, but those are pretty rare. In any event, John Raymond mentions a censes of 2 on his website (www.socalleddollar.com) with the following comment: "This piece can also be found in gilt. There were two of these gilt pieces sold on ebay a number of years ago, and I bought one of them. The piece that I own has surfaces that have a bit of a matte look to them. There is a bagmark on the forehead, and under a glass it looks as if the matte-like gilt surface extends down into the bagmark; so obviously the piece was plated after it was struck. It has no saltwater damage. At this time I do not know what the underlying metal is. I have no idea as to the origins of these gilt pieces. Obviously they may have been gilded in order to imitate the gold pieces, but I doubt that they were ever made to deceive anyone, as they are not very convincing."  Since there are only about 5-8 real gold Wilson Dollars and they are slabbed / known, this gilt Wilson is more of a novelty.

Quote from Jeff Shevlin on January 5, 2014, 3:01 pm

HK-409A silver-plate The bail of the fob has the same "Robbins Attleboro" stamp as is on the edge of all of the 409's that I have seen. http://www.flickr.com/photos/19650091@N04/12577114555/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/19650091@N04/12577588134/

Quote from Jeff Shevlin on January 5, 2014, 3:13 pm

Bought this copper piece at a good discount with my "eBay bucks"? seems like getting these higher grade copper pieces are quite a challenge. I see the "ocean dumped" pieces all the time, and they are worth very little, so don't overpay for them.

Bob, what are "ebay bucks"? I was watching this piece myself and thinking about bidding on it. I think you got a good deal on it!

Quote from billycgribble on January 5, 2014, 3:54 pm

I have seen the gilted Wilson Dollars at shows but never wanted to pay the premium for them. They were obviously gilted by someone after the mint struck them. In this case they are not an official mint product. Whoever gilted them may not have been trying to deceive anyone about them being gold, but they seem to think they are now worth a premium. I am not willing to pay the premium for one.

Quote from Pioneer on January 5, 2014, 3:59 pm

Bought this copper piece at a good discount with my "eBay bucks"? seems like getting these higher grade copper pieces are quite a challenge. I see the "ocean dumped" pieces all the time, and they are worth very little, so don't overpay for them.