Hi

I was wondering if anyone here knew how to plate coins. I have in mind a Spellbound effect.

Thanks
Daniel

How to...
0) check which metal will plate to which metal
1) polish whatever
2) may need to acid bath
3) dip into salt of metal
4) apply current

or better and MUCH safer... make friends in the jewerly or metalworks business and get your props done as part of an industrial run.

I'm not sure what type of plating you are refering to. Lately I've been thinking of chrome plating my jumbo coins so they don't dull. Does anyone know where to do this? At a cheap price is most prefered (obviously).

Folks who do car parts can help. The stuff I had plated was annodized then plated. Much better to make friends in the business than try to prep or do the job yourself. Cost of small runs is not cheap unless you can get a deal from the plant.

Electroplating is pretty simple and, provided you can get the chemicals, something you can do at home. You'll probably get a better result from a plating company, but if you can't get to one then you will need: A current source around 3V (up to 5A), some wire, a water soluble salt of the plating metal, a small piece of the metal and the object you want to coat (which must be metal).

Make a saturated solution of the salt, connect the current source, positive to the piece of metal, negative to the object you want to plate, place both the metal and the object into the solution and wait. The plating will just happen.

A couple of things to note: don't use too high a voltage or you will get a poor result - more importantly many of the salts are highly poisonous, so make sure you take proper precautions and dispose of the waste in accordance with local laws.

David.

It would probably be cheaper to buy one from one of the magic dealers... hocus pocus sells the very shiny jumbo half for 21.95 each...Im not sure how much the chemicals for plating would cost, but I'm guessing it costs more...

I can silver plate copper pennies with real silver. PM me if you want more information. I can plate entire coins, or one side or half of one side.

Kirk Grodske

I had some coins plated exactly as you describe -- on one side only -- several years ago for an idea I had worked on. The way they did it was to paint one side of the coin with asphaltum, which is a tarry black substance.

There are several types of people who do small lot electroplating. Look for people who work on firearms, musical instruments and antiques.

One fellow who had a really great electroplating service in Houston was an old theatre man who had hosted many magic shows in one of the movie houses that had been a vaudeville theatre at one time.

Doing this work yourself can be dangerous. Some of the chemicals contain cyanide. It is very important to know what your local regulations are and how you need to dispose of the waste.

Be very careful of the use of mercury in particular to do "metal plating."

Do you know if these are accually chrome plated, or just shiney for a while until their shine wears out?

Try Caswell Plating, they have kits to plate all sorts of metal. I am thinking of gold plating my Okito boxes to prevent tarnish

http://www.caswellplating.com

Yeah, I'd try any plating company before I messed around with live voltage and cyanide. That's a good combination for trouble, especially for a clutz like me.

Can a clad coin (quarter, half, etc. be copper plated?

Amos McCormick

Re: Can a clad coin (quarter, half, etc. be copper plated?

Yes