There are a number of individuals that state that they saw and/or felt (while still being covered in most, if not all cases) the gold plates. Did Joseph have a prop? Who created it? Joseph? Oliver? Sidney? How did he dispose of it?...... How was it that NO ONE, supposedly, pulled the cover/blanket/bag off of the prop (even with the risk of immediate destruction, per Joseph)?

It makes sense to me that Smith would have a prop, but I don't know of any definitive evidence of one. I don't think it would have been particularly hard to make one; I remember an activity I participated in as a member where we helped etch random characters into replica gold plates to make a prop some church guy needed. I can't remember what he was going to use it for.

Which reminds me of one of my "shelved" problems back in the day: the "characters" that made up reformed Egyptian did not look like a real language. I considered myself somewhat a linguist back then, having studied Japanese, learned Korean on mission, and having an interest in Hebrew and Egyptian hieroglyphics. The above mentioned languages all have some consistency and evident organization that you can recognize as a language. The characters Smith produced looked like the kind of thing people who don't understand Chinese make up when they are mimicking Chinese characters.

But the Prophet Joseph did indeed know Chinese as he demonstrated with his translation of the Kinderhook Pl...

Oh, right.

Multiple people said that Joseph told them that they would die if they looked at the plates. Martin Harris was also told that he would die if he looked at Joe's peep stone. Many probably believed him, but we know that some didn't. This may be why much of the translation was done without the plates present. I'm sure Emma's dad, Martin's wife, and others would have tried to take a peek and expose the fraud. I wouldn't be suprised if Joe destroyed the prop pretty early on...it would have been pretty embarassing if his treasure hunting buddies had discovered his tin plates.

I'm betting there's a good reason that the plates were described as "having the thickness of common tin".

If I remember correctly, one theory was that old copper printer's plates were used to create a prop for the alleged 'gold plates'

check out :
http://mormonleaks.com/

If you remove everyone who is implicated with being "in" on the con, then as far as I'm aware the remaining reliable accounts of the plates describe something that can very easily be described as a box full of sand under a pillowcase.

It was reported that the plates were around 40-60 pounds in weight. I can't remember where I saw it, but I once read an article that gave the weight calculations, based on the reported dimensions of the plates, for several metals.

Gold, brass, and copper would all have been too heavy. Tin was the only metal that landed in that 40-60 pound range.

Quite a coincidence.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/15/2013 01:27PM by Hold Your Tapirs.

Remember, the "witnesses" only "saw" the plates with the spiritual eyes, meaning they sat around, and pretended they saw an angel holding the plates. There were a few people who claimed to have held the plates through a blanket, but they were not allowed to see them. As someone pointed out, you would have no problem allowing someone to hold tin plates that were so hidden, but the moment they saw them the game would be up. Also, isn't it amazing how the Ark of the Covenant was so sacred that you were not allowed to touch it, but you could see it (just don't look inside) whereas the gold plates were exactly the opposite?