Weird embossed plate

[GL]

Found a metal plate a few years ago. It was around 20ft from my backdoor and about 3in deep(under the grass roots). It was green and crummy looking with nailholes one the edge. Its got a rust stripe on one edge too.
So I promptly lose this plate and it resurfaced today on my porch in a box with other items I dug up that day. So I take this thing inside and squirt lemon juice on it and use a sponge to clean off the green and dirt...I think I see something...

 

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[gleaner1]

Put that on the whatzit site. Never seen anything like it.

 

[GL]

 

[Metal Magnet]

Reminds me of a book cover print plate...neat find.

 

[GL]

Wow that is so not easy to take a picture of! If its dry you cant see anything, wipe it with a damp sponge and the images appear in the light. Embossed. So weird, I cant tell how old the image is. Military looking though.

 

[manorman]

below sound like what you have?
if it is embossed you should be able to feel the image? some one witn a good photo editor may be able to bring out a better image.
might be an important image.
He discovered that exposing the silver first to iodine vapour before exposure to light, and then to mercury fumes after the photograph was taken, could form a latent image. Bathing the plate in a salt bath then fixes the image. On January 7, 1839 Daguerre announced that he had invented a process using silver on a copper plate called the daguerreotype, and displayed the first plate

 

[bearbqd]

What do you mean it showed up on your porch? Who put it there? Looks spooky to me, like ghostly civil war soldiers trying to show themselves. Crazy looking.

 

[Roland58]

Lay a piece of paper over the plate, insuring that it does not move, and try doing a "rubbing" with a soft lead pencil. This is done by using the side of the pencil lead, then, very lightly and quickly, rub the area of paper that is over the plate. It should reproduce the picture like a black and white photo...
much easier to see.

 

[gleaner1]

Certainly the piece is embossed. If you dampen it with light oil or even water, and get the lighting correct, the image will "pop" a lot better with the camera.

 

[curbdiggercarl57]

Looks like a group of men standing in the background, (possibly military),
with Indians in the foreground.
To me.
As mentioned many times in the past, I've been known to smell colors, see voices, etc..
Let us know what it turns out to be!
Carl

Or have a contest.

 

[jewelerguy]

On January 7, 1839 Daguerre announced that he had invented a process using silver on a copper plate called the daguerreotype, and displayed the first plate

looks very well like it could be a daguerreotype

 

[duggap]

If you feel it is a pic try this. If you have electrolis use an almost dead 9 volt battery as your power source and run it thru. You should get amazing results as the pic will usually show up.

 

[Nirros]

I have played around with this for a few minutes. Hope this helps you

 

[GL]

I think its a baseball team. 9 of the 10 men in the image have a large C on their left breast. The 1st man on the top left has letters across his chest in an arc. Baseball team and the uniforms are baggy so...

The image is also reversed. Newspaper printing plate? I saw a lot more detail this afternoon with the sunset light instead of the indoor glare I had a fairly easy to see image of what appear to be baseball players, I cant really feel the image though. It was really bright green and there was all sorts of crapola in the hole I dug it out of! Bones, broken glass, busted bricks, nails, crow skulls, pebbles,clay balls as big as your fist, masonry bits, rusty stuff... I think its a filled privy? Why else would there be a squareish hole in the yard filled with bricks and junk? If so its the second Ive identified out of a few other spots. This close to the house and it was under a cedar stump that was half in, half out of the square hole. I figured it was an outhouse and when it was full it was filled in and a cedar grew in the spot, lived died and was a stump by the time I dug it out and discovered this pit containing the plate above. There is a very old cedar about 20 feet from this spot too.

 

[Roland58]

Try the "rubbing".....it can't hurt and may disclose what you are looking for.

 

[doublet2a]

Is this better

 

[celtex]

Is this better

It is a printing plate.I have found 7-8 of them now.

Get you an ink roller, roll the ink over the plate then press some paper on it (a brick does well). Don't rub it too much or clean too hard because the etching is very then. I bet the material is copper. Be neat to see the print if you do one.

 

[Tigger]

How thick is it?

If the image is reversed, then I'm voting for printing plate. I will admit that I'm not seeing the images clearly tho - looked like the C was normal to me. Love the ghostly images!

"First do no harm". So I'd put off a rubbing for now. Water soluble ink to make a print would probably do no harm, especially if you're seeing the image reversed and its therefore likely to be a printing plate. Gently wash the ink off right away so you don't have to scrub it. Display print and find together = awesome! Maybe your local historical society could ID the pix once you have a print?

Keep us posted!
Tigger
PS - for more info on privy digging, see the Bottles and Glass forum further down the page. They talk alot about IDing privys.

 

[Roland58]

Tigger sed, ""First do no harm". So I'd put off a rubbing for now.""

As I stated originally, doing a very light rubbing would produce an image. This would not harm the original plate in any way and would be much safer than exposing the plate to any sort of chemicals.

I totally agree with "do no harm", but, properly done (with very light pressure from the side of a soft lead pencil), a rubbing would certainly fall into that category. If this is, in fact, a printing plate (which I suspect it is) of any kind, it would have been subject to a lot more pressure that one could possibly exert with the side of a pencil lead.

 

[calisdad]

On January 7, 1839 Daguerre announced that he had invented a process using silver on a copper plate called the daguerreotype, and displayed the first plate

looks very well like it could be a daguerreotype

My first thought as well. Neat find. Now we need to see a finished image.