Golden plates

Golden Plates is the common name used to refer to the metallic plates from which Joseph Smith, Jr. said he translated The Book of Mormon.

Story of the Plates

The Book of Mormon speaks of four records engraved between the time of the Tower of Babel and A.D. 421 on metal plates. In or about the year A.D. 421, The Book of Mormon has a prophet named Moroni (Mormon's son) hiding some records on metal plates "unto the Lord, that they might not be destroyed."

Smith said that on September 21, 1823 the same Moroni, then a resurrected angel, visited him and showed him the plates at a hill near his home in Palmyra, New York, USA. Moroni subsequently delivered the hidden plates to him on September 22, 1827. Smith said he had custody of the plates until he finished the translation of The Book of Mormon in 1830, upon which he returned them to the angel Moroni.

All information about the plates comes either from The Book of Mormon or from Smith and his associates who said they handled or saw the plates during that period.

Composition of the Plates

Smith said the plates had the appearance of gold and were sheets of metal about 6 inches wide by 8 inches high and somewhat thinner than common tin. They were bound together with three rings, and made a book about 6 inches thick. Reports from Smith and others who hefted them agree that they weighed about 60 pounds.

The actual metallic composition of the plates is neither known nor asserted, though it was common for the witnesses to say they had the appearance of gold.

Witnesses of the Plates

Spiritual Witnesses

Mary Whitmer

Mary Whitmer, the wife of Peter Whitmer, Sr., said she saw the angel Moroni, conversed with him, and was shown the gold plates as a comfort and testimony to her while she kept house for a large party during the translation work(Peterson, H. Donl. Moroni: Ancient Prophet, Modern Messenger. Bountiful, Utah, 1983. pp. 114, 116).