Galvano

Galvano is the name of a process commonly used in wood engraving and woodcuts to increase the edition .

To the wooden printing block to spare, one is of him with an electrochemical process facsimile - printing form created and this template is used instead of the original printing block for printing the actual edition. Although the imprints produced in this way can hardly be distinguished from prints from the original plate , they are nevertheless not regarded as original graphics (see also graphics , chapter Original and Reproduction).

A coin or medal copy is also referred to as a galvano . Usually galvanos are only made of very large, rare and expensive objects and are intended to fill gaps in collections. To do this, an impression of the front and back is first made in the finest plaster of paris. Then the plaster mold z. B. poured with wax. The positive wax impression is now made electrically conductive with graphite powder and then the graphite surface of the wax model is copper-plated, silver-plated or gold-plated. However, one can also proceed directly from the graphed negative impression. Now both electrolytically obtained metal foils, which are an image of the copied coin from the obverse and lapel, are carefully soldered after filling with lead and the edge is then smoothed. Galvanos usually differ from the original in the lack of marginal writing, the differing weight, the slightly lower embossing sharpness and the muffled sound of the lead core. In addition, good electroplating should have a marking.

literature

Heinz Fengler u. a. Lexicon Numismatics , transpress Verlag für Verkehrwesen Berlin 1988, ISBN 3-344-00220-1