High Plains Digger said:
Stefan: Say it ain't so! I was taught about the Drake Plate in 4th grade California history and even at 9 or 10, pondered how important it was and how I would like to find something like that.
Sorry to burst your bubble...
The plate was recently submitted by the
Bancroft Library, University of California for scientific testing and was found to be a modern brass foundry formula composition, that was rolled not hammered, and cut using a shear press. The patina was man-applied, and the language was contemporary english and not the english of yore.
It was also determined that it can be attributed to 4 specific people, and was originally planted as a jest.
Lets go a step further. Drake was attested to as being a master seaman, and yet recent studies of his location along the California coast is also bunk.
In the end, Drake was nothing more than a pirate with a price on his head.
Because of a fake brass plate, historians made a criminal into a world class hero.
History is being rewritten as we speak.
PS. Anytime a new find is attributed to Drake, it will be intensly studied, and most likely, will be held in doubt until proven its worth.