Rock Bottom – Pirate Booty!

A short while back, in fact quite a little longer than a short while back, we were asked to gold plate a one ounce silver doubloon replica coin. The doubloon was originally a Spanish coin which was used mid 16th to the mid 19th centuries. It was hand-struck from gold and is commonly referred to as a “gold piece”. The doubloon weighed approximately one ounce and was solid 22 karat gold.

The doubloon was also widely used in the West Indies and South America. Due to being made from almost pure gold the doubloon had value worldwide even where it wasn’t legal tender. Since much of the piracy that took place was between English and Spanish privateers, Spanish gold doubloons often formed English pirate booty.

The doubloon in the following video was actually 24 karat gold plated by us.

Amateur film maker, Robert Lorrimer made his short film “Rock Bottom” over two consecutive mornings at ‘Petit Bot Bay’ on the island of Guernsey armed with a Canon 7d DSLR, light weight tripod, a banana and a suitcase.

More details on this film clip can be found here: Rock Bottom.

If you would like a quotation or advice on an items suitability for gold plating please use our contact form.

Welcome To Pure Gold Plating

Specialist brush electroplaters since 2008, Pure Gold Plating offer a wide range of electroplating & finishing services for both industry & the private sector.

Our services include gold plating in yellow, white, green & rose gold, platinum, palladium, silver plating, white bronze, copper, nickel, decorative chrome plating & even black chrome plating.

All our work is electroplated with durability in mind for a long lasting finish & our hard gold plating exceeds many of our customer’s expectations. Our gold solution is 24 Carat pure gold & contains no alloys. This pure gold plating solution can be mixed all the way down to 9 Carat enabling us to colour match for that always perfect finish whether it be a large commercial project or simply a one-off pair of bath taps.

Pure Gold Plating work hard to provide a first class professional service to all our customers both in the UK, where we are based, & worldwide.

We also provide an extensive gold & silver plating training course as well as offer a complete gold & silver plating business opportunity complete with website, all equipment, solutions, training & ongoing support for as long as you need us. For full details please see our training page.

• All our quotations include return delivery unless stated otherwise.
• We are able to carry out ‘selective plating’ if required. This involves electroplating part of a single item or we can simply electroplate an item in two or more precious or non-precious metals.
• We provide metal finishing services on a wide range of materials including electroplating aluminium & zinc.
• Our turnaround is 3 – 10 days on the majority of work.
• We provide a cleaning & polishing only service.
• Need something else? We add new services frequently so please contact us.

What is Gold Plating?

What is gold plating? Typically, gold plating is the method of depositing a thin layer of gold onto a conductive surface, electrochemically in our case. The surface is normally a metal base which allows a current to be passed through it to form a complete circuit allowing the gold particles in the solution to bond with the item being gold electroplated, also called the cathode.

Plastics can also be gold electroplated but these must be made conductive first. This specialized technique is normally carried out by coating the plastic, and most other non-conductive items, with a silver conductive ink which is blown on using a compressor and spray gun.

Gold plating classification for gold plated thickness is as follows:

Gold flash is equal to 0.175 microns. For example, this is often used as a base coat onto nickel prior to being silver plated to enable a good bond.

Gold plate minimum thickness is equal to 0.50 microns. Used primarily as a decorative finish on items with minimal and infrequent handling.

Heavy gold plate is equal to 2.50 microns. For a long lasting gold finish on high wear items such as; watches, buckles, auto parts and jewellery. Normal thickness applied would range between 2.5 – 6 microns dependant upon the item and its intended use.

Our specially developed gold plating solutions are designed to be extremely hard and durable and a finish of just 5 microns is often more than adequate for long term durability of high wear items.