The other thing ill say is ive worked in a few plating shops, chrome, silver and gold.
And we used to plate anything we could get out hands on when we were bored.
Tools, tins, keys, bicycle parts, anything.
If it was made of metal and we were bored, we plated it.

If I'd have had air pistols and rifles back then I WOULD have plated them and in future everyone would be wondering why some old mk1 airsporter seems to have had a gold plated finish

The bosses in these places didn't even mind as the process you have to go through to be able to judge how to plate a random object just taught you how to be better at your job. This tell could easily just have been done on someone's lunchtime.