The plate is not pure copper. It may be a low zinc brass or a bronze. The dimensions, tolerances, composition and workmanship are consistent with the facilities of an 1843 blacksmith shop and with the fraud stories of the original participants. The characteristics of the inscription grooves can be reproduced in great detail using the simple acid-wax technique, contrary to the judgement of the engravers. George M Lawrence, ‘Report of a Physical Study of the Kinderhook Plate Number 5
There are the Kinderhook plates, too, found in America … most experts agree they are of ancient vintage. Mark E Petersen, Mormon Apostle, Those Gold Plates, 1970
As a result of these tests, we concluded that the plate ... is not of ancient origin ... the plate was etched with acid; and as Paul Cheesman and other scholars have pointed out, ancient inhabitants would probably have engraved the plates rather than etched them with acid. Secondly, we concluded that the plate was made from a true brass alloy (copper and zinc) typical of the mid-nineteenth century: whereas the ‘brass’ of ancient times was actually bronze, an alloy of copper and tin. Professor S P Kimball, Ensign August 1981 pp66-70
PLATES, SCROLLS & MUMMIES: Charlotte Haven - SprongeBobSquareGarments - Warsaw Message -
... we called on Joseph’s mother, passing the site of the Nauvoo House, a spacious hotel, the first floor only laid. It is like the Temple in being erected on the tithe system, and when finished will surpass in splendor any hotel in the State. Here Joseph and his heirs for generations are to have apartments free of expense, and they think the crowned heads of Europe will rusticate beneath its roof. Madam Smith’s residence is a log house very near her son’s. She opened the door and received us cordially. She is a motherly kind of woman of about sixty years. She receives a little pittance by exhibiting the mummies to strangers. When we asked to see them, she lit a candle and conducted us up a short narrow stairway to a low, dark room under the roof. On one side were standing half a dozen mummies, to whom she introduced us, King Onitus and his royal household – one she did not know.
‘... This is the leg of Pharaoh’s daughter, the one that saved Moses.’
Repressing a smile, I looked from the mummies to the old lady, but could detect nothing but earnestness and sincerity on her countenance. Then she turned to a long table, set her candlestick down, and opened a long roll of manuscript, saying it was ‘the writing of Abraham and Isaac, written in Hebrew and Sanskrit,’ and she read several minutes from it as if it were English. It sounded very much like passages from the Old Testament. And it might have been for anything we knew – but she said she read it through the inspiration of her son Joseph, in whom she seemed to have perfect confidence. Then in the same way she interpreted to us hieroglyphics from another roll. One was Mother Eve being tempted by the serpent, who – the serpent, I mean – was standing on the tip of his tail, which with his two legs formed a tripod, and had his head in Eve’s ear. I said, ‘But serpents don’t have legs.’
‘They did before the fall,’ she asserted with perfect confidence. The Judge slipped a coin in her hand which she received smilingly, with a pleasant, ‘Come again,’ as we bade her goodbye. Charlotte Haven, Overland Monthly, A Girl’s Letters from Nauvoo pp.623-624
Joseph [Smith] of course translated the Book of Mormon from Reformed Egyptian and he also translated the Book of Abraham from Egyptian papyri so he apparently knew Egyptian well enough to translate it and Professor Caswall wanted to see what he thought about this ancient Greek manuscript.
Joseph examined the ancient document and replied that it was a Dictionary of Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphics. Professor Caswall of course knew Joseph was wrong as this was a known Greek Psalter and definitely not Egyptian.
Professor Caswall then informed the Prophet that it was but a plain Greek Psalter. Joseph then left the scene. Professor Caswall told this incident to Mormon apostle Dr William Richards who said, ‘Sometimes Mr Smith speaks as mere man. If he gave a wrong opinion respecting the book, he spoke as a mere man.’ SpongeBob SquareGarments, board post 12th October 2008, ‘Joseph Smith’s Translation of a Greek Manuscript’
I handed the book to the prophet, and begged him to explain its contents. He asked me if I had any idea of its meaning. I replied, that I believed it to be a Greek Psalter; but that I should like to hear his opinion. ‘No,’ he said, ‘it ain’t Greek at all, except, perhaps, a few words. What ain’t Greek, is Egyptian; and what ain’t Egyptian, is Greek. This book is very valuable. It is a dictionary of Egyptian Hieroglyphics.’ Pointing to the capital letters at the commencement of each verse, he said: ‘Them figures is Egyptian hieroglyphics; and them which follows, is the interpretation of the hieroglyphics, written in the reformed Egyptian. Them characters is like the letters that was engraved on the golden plates.’ Warsaw Message vol I no 45 15th November 1843