Question about silver-plating
MrEureka
Posts: 24,364 ✭✭✭✭✭
Is there a silver-plating process that would involve the use of tin? Perhaps as a base layer below the silver, or as part of a single mix?
Andy Lustig
Doggedly collecting coins of the Central American Republic.
Visit the Society of US Pattern Collectors at USPatterns.com.
Doggedly collecting coins of the Central American Republic.
Visit the Society of US Pattern Collectors at USPatterns.com.
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Comments
Intuitively, no. Tin is quite soft, and I'd think that attempting to plate it wouldn't result in something durable. Bronze can be plated, though, and it's a copper-tin alloy, so that could be the source of tin that shows up in XRF of silver plated stuff.
Keeper of the VAM Catalog • Professional Coin Imaging • Prime Number Set • World Coins in Early America • British Trade Dollars • Variety Attribution
I have a fairly extensive background in plating (electronic parts, printed circuits, switches etc.) and studied metallurgy. I am not familiar with any application that uses a pure tin undercoat. Perhaps as @messydesk suggested, a tin alloy might be used - though that would normally be the final plating. Cheers, RickO
X
He who knows he has enough is rich.
Wasn't "bronzing powder" largely tin, which was somehow baked into the surface of a copper medal to change the surface layer from copper to bronze?
What is the piece that you are asking about? Without knowing that, let me ask is it possible that the item was given two separate and different treatments, one of which involved tin and the second one silver?