Hi all, Look at this auction: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=330535864705&ssPageName=ADME:B:WNA:US:1123 Part of the description of this coin is 'gilt'. What does that mean? Gathering by the low price this restrike seems to be fetching, I'd say it means that this coin is not really gold. Any ideas? Thanks! -StephenS
The original definition was covered with gold leaf (a microscopic thickness of gold of various purity). Often glued or pressed over meta, wood, ceramic, etc. to look like precious gold or represent precious gold in artistic endeavors. Many older religious objects were gilded with gold leaf. The amount of gold is usually extremely small by weight, and have little to do with the PM content. Jim
The term gilding covers a number of decorative techniques for applying fine gold leaf or powder to solid surfaces such as wood, stone, or metal to give a thin coating of gold. A gilded object is described as "gilt". Where metal is gilded it was traditionally usually silver in the West, to make silver-gilt (or "vermeil") objects, but gilt-bronze is much used in China, and also called ormolu if it is Western. Methods of gilding include hand application and glueing, chemical gilding, and electroplating, the last also called gold plating.[1] Parcel-gilt objects are only gilded over part of their surfaces. This may mean that all of the inside, and none of the outside, of a chalice or similar vessel is gilded, or that patterns or images are made up by using a combination of gilt and un-gilt areas.
