"Mark Thorson" > wrote in message
...
> Boron Elgar wrote:
>>
>> Perhaps the coating was something patented in Germany, and you can
>> find more information in that direction.
>
> I did search the U.S. patents, and got no hits,
> but if there were any patents, they probably
> would be so old that they would not have been
> converted to searchable text.
>
> I don't know what European law is, but my Reiche
> molds don't have any patent markings. I suspect
> that this was a proprietary plating. It's also
> possible that it was a process, such as
> electropolishing.
>
> Judging by the brightness of the remaining patches
> of plating, I suspect nickel or chromium may have
> been used.

The closest name I could find was platinite, this was a low expansion Ni-Fe
alloy designed to give similar thermal expansion to that of platinum.