Why are the pictures in old auction catalogs called "plates"?

Comments

• PerryHall Posts: 46,853 ✭✭✭✭✭

  July 17, 2005 5:00AM

  In the early days of photography the negatives were on glass plates.

  Worry is the interest you pay on a debt you may not owe.
  "Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value---zero."----Voltaire
  "Everything you say should be true, but not everything true should be said."----Voltaire

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• morgannut2 Posts: 4,293 ✭

  July 17, 2005 5:03AM

  And many Civil war photos were lost because they were favored as panes in the greenhouses popular in the 70's-80's!! Any more obsure questions??

  morgannut2

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• lathmach Posts: 4,720 ✭

  July 17, 2005 8:21AM

  "Plates" are used in offset printing.
  The image is on the plates, and is inked then transfered to a rubber cylinder which then transfers the design to the paper during the printing process.
  Aluminum and paper are used for plates. The metal plates are most commonly used as they last longer.
  The work to be printed is photographed. Then the negative is stripped. After stripping the design is burned into the plate.
  I used to work at Columbus Litho in Columbus Nebraska back in 1960.
  
  Ray
  

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• RYK Posts: 35,800 ✭✭✭✭✭

  July 17, 2005 8:27AM

  Plates were used in early radiography, as well, probably into the 1960's. Some still refer to abdomen X-rays as "abdomen flat plates".

  My Box of 20: https://pcgs.com/setregistry/collectors-showcase/box-20/ryks-gold-box-20/17132

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• grip Posts: 9,962 ✭✭✭✭✭

  July 17, 2005 8:37AM

  When I was an X-ray tech,I used grids with the bucky,I still have a nice glow about me at nightime
  Al

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• keets Posts: 25,351 ✭✭✭✭✭

  July 17, 2005 9:48AM

  who among us has used coins to put food on a plate??

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• grip Posts: 9,962 ✭✭✭✭✭

  July 17, 2005 10:43AM

  Huh..You mean like a silver dollar that was hammered out into a spoon??
  Im lost.
  Al

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• CarlWohlforth Posts: 11,074 ✭

  July 17, 2005 10:56AM

  When I was 10 my Grandma introduced me to a coin collector because I was interested in coins. He gave me a neat half cent which I wish I still had. Anyway this old guy had many antiques. He had early American plates made of wood. They were two sided. Naturally you couldn't turn your plate over for desert unless you cleaned up your main dish. He gave me a raw 1855 Unc Red Half Cent which I sold when I got into college...
  
  I did work on printing presses. Paper plates were used on extremely short runs. They never were used on web presses because they didn't last long. The Aluminum plates were only used on short runs. Steel plates were used on longer runs...

  Carl's Coins website w/ links to Carl's auctions
  

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• Conder101 Posts: 10,536 ✭

  July 17, 2005 3:59PM

  I think you will find that Perry has it closest. The early auction catalogs used actual photographs of the coins printed from the glass plates. I think the term has just stuck since then even though different printing technologies have been used over the years.

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