Camp-made Counterfeit

The counterfeiting of coins has been going on since ancient times.  No surprise then that some creative , and financially strapped soldiers in our Civil War used their spare time to make spare change. Shown below is a lead half dollar that when freshly poured and minted from a crude mold, would have looked very much like the real thing to someone unused to handling such a large denomination. I was asked to bring out the detail of this relic and have done so by first adding a uniform ground coloration then dusting with white, lead oxide.  Prior to this, and upon first glance, this special relic appeared to be little more than a lead disc as seen in the bottom pre-restoration photo.