NNP

Depletion Gilding.  An ancient method of reverse plating; it removes gold from the surface of firegilded or gold objects. The process leached the gold in minute amounts

from the surface only. It was, of course, abandoned with the development of electroplating and the ability to reverse plate (switch the current flow, the object becomes the anode where the molecules of gold are drawn off the object to deposit on the cathode).  See electroplating.

excerpted with permission from

An Encyclopedia of Coin and Medal Technology

For Artists, Makers, Collectors and Curators

COMPILED AND WRITTEN BY D. WAYNE JOHNSON

Roger W. Burdette, Editor