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  #1  
Old 28-08-17, 09:52 AM
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Default Fretted plated para badges

I added a new addition to my wartime para badges with this "silver" plated example. I already had a nickle plated version but this new addition is definitely a different colour suggesting to me that it is silver rather than nickle plated though perhaps is is just a difference in the plating process. Otherwise the two badges are from the same die and are to my eyes identical.
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File Type: jpg fretted pair 1.jpg (31.0 KB, 86 views)
File Type: jpg fretted pair 2.jpg (35.7 KB, 43 views)
File Type: jpg fretted pair 3.jpg (29.3 KB, 58 views)
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Last edited by JerryBB; 28-08-17 at 10:52 AM.
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Old 28-08-17, 03:06 PM
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Originally Posted by JBBOND View Post
I added a new addition to my wartime para badges with this "silver" plated example. I already had a nickle plated version but this new addition is definitely a different colour suggesting to me that it is silver rather than nickle plated though perhaps is is just a difference in the plating process. Otherwise the two badges are from the same die and are to my eyes identical.
Hi Jerry, they are from the same die but I doubt if one is silver plated, probably just a colour variation. If you really want to know then have it silver tested.

Jack.
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Old 29-08-17, 04:48 PM
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Thanks Jack.

Just a variant in the amount of nickle in the plating perhaps. Can't complain for a tenner.
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Old 29-08-17, 05:23 PM
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It looks very yellowish, perhaps the plating has been polished off?

Rgds, Thomas.
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Old 29-08-17, 07:15 PM
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It looks very yellowish, perhaps the plating has been polished off?

Rgds, Thomas.
Thomas,

yes one is more yellow, the other more silver in colour but otherwise identical even down to the silver coloured lugs on the reverse and both from the same die.

Nickle plating is yellowish, I have a mate who has been a metal plater since the late 1970's and nickle plating is always is a more yellow colour than we seem to expect from these badges, which is why I wondered if perhaps the other was silver plated. Maybe we are wrong to call these nickle plated, when the colour is not correct for nickle, though perhaps there is something I am not getting.

The more yellow badge is in very good condition with no signs of the plating having worn or been rubbed off, though I know these early fretted plated badges are prone to losing their plating so perhaps you are correct and that is what has happened.
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Old 29-08-17, 07:30 PM
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Jerry I came to my conclusion based solely on your images, in hand the difference in colour might heve led me to a different conclusion. But comparing front and back the back seems less yellow.
Some badge buffs consider the first version of these plated badges to have had some sort of silver wash, and the second version nickel plated.

My plated vesion is definately not silver plated.

Rgds, Thomas.
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Old 30-08-17, 06:58 AM
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Originally Posted by fougasse1940 View Post
Jerry I came to my conclusion based solely on your images, in hand the difference in colour might heve led me to a different conclusion. But comparing front and back the back seems less yellow.
Some badge buffs consider the first version of these plated badges to have had some sort of silver wash, and the second version nickel plated.

My plated vesion is definately not silver plated.

Rgds, Thomas.
A silver wash seems more applicable than nickle plating in this case. You are correct, the more yellow badge is less obviously yellow on the reverse which is why I said that perhaps you are correct in that it has lost some of its finish.
If I remember correctly, plating is first done by polishing the metal, than a copper layer is applied then the nickle and then the other top plate layer, all done by electro plating. Certainly for chrome plating, it was copper, nickle then the chrome so a silver wash would replace the chrome, though whether in this case it is actual silver or another metal finish that gives that colour.

Nickle plating is just the two layers, copper with the nickle on top.
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Old 30-08-17, 07:01 AM
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a variant in the amount of nickle in the plating
I believe alloys are noy used for plating, only pure metals.
Perhaps it is chrome vs nickel?
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Old 30-08-17, 03:29 PM
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Originally Posted by JBBOND View Post
If I remember correctly, plating is first done by polishing the metal, than a copper layer is applied then the nickle and then the other top plate layer, all done by electro plating. Certainly for chrome plating, it was copper, nickle then the chrome so a silver wash would replace the chrome, though whether in this case it is actual silver or another metal finish that gives that colour.

Nickle plating is just the two layers, copper with the nickle on top.
I'm not sure these badges are first copper plated, then nickel plated as the badges themselves contain a high percentage of copper already. Brass is 67% Copper and 33% Zinc, Gilding metal 86,7% Copper, 13,3% Zinc amd white metal or German silver, sometimes referred to as nickel-silver 64,5% Copper, 16,5% Zinc, 19,0% Nickel.
Difference between nickel plating and chrome plating is nickel goes straight onto copper based metals, and chorme, which is colourless, is always over nickel plating. Non copper metals need a layer of copper for the nickel to adhere to.

Rgds, Thomas.
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Old 30-08-17, 03:39 PM
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I believe alloys are noy used for plating, only pure metals.
I believe you are correct.

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Perhaps it is chrome vs nickel?
Nevers say never, but I've not yet seen any of these voided badges in chrome plating.
Perhaps the colour difference stems from a difference in thickness of the plating, which can vary between 5 and 30 microns with nickel plating, but it still doesn't explain the difference in colour between front and back.

Rgds, Thomas.
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