This antique watch chain fob has a stamp on the reverse side depicting " 18CT GOLD CASED " Often, antique jewellery is described asgold-cased. The jewellery described as being gold-cased are Georgian and Victorian pieces such as seals, fobs, watches and small pendants. So what does the term mean? Gold-cased is another term for rolled gold, a long lasting form of plating. The process for rolled gold was invented in Birmingham in 1785 and was to be further developed in Birmingham over the next decades. It required a thick sheet of gold to be soldered to a thick sheet of brass. The ratio of the thickness of the two sheets would vary from 1:10 to 1:100. The double sheet was then rolled out to a thin sheet. The sheet lent itself to being punched and engraved and was very hard-wearing and durable. Sometimes the base used is of silver with the gold sheet placed on top. This is also called gold-cased. Rolled gold or gold-cased is not the same as gold plate jewellery. Gold plating was inve