Cheesman gathered information on the Lambayeque gold plate for at least twelve years, first as Director of Research for an organization called Theo-Science Amalgamated in Los Angeles, and later as Director of the Institute of Book of Mormon Projects at BYU. During this time, he corresponded with dozens of scholars and paid for metallurgical analyses from several different laboratories.
The scholars' replies to Cheesman's letters were not encouraging. Chemist Adon A. Gordon felt the metallurgical makeup of the plate was a little too close to commercial 22 carat gold. Dr. Junius Bird of the Museum of Natural History pronounced that it "definitely was not old as far as the workmanship was concerned," and was probably created by a well-known circle of forgers associated with one "Sr Bonamiche." He said that the patina had been brushed on, the lines were too straight, and the characters were only half authentic. Robert Sonin, who was present when Bird examined the plate, concurred with his analysis. John H. Rowe of UC Berkeley came independently to a similar conclusion, and Clifford Evans opined that the symbols were not pre-Columbian. One of the funniest replies was from an Egyptologist, who simply seemed bewildered to be asked about a plate that clearly had nothing to do with Egypt.
Cheesman was not to be dissuaded by such cynicism. He carefully compared the symbols on the plate to ancient Cypriot and the Anthon Transcript, and noted the similarities. He also seized upon the optimistic comments of diffusionist scholar Cyrus Gordon and local enthusiast Richard P. Anderson, who noted that characters on the plate bear similarities to a Jewish symbol, the Mason’s square, and Viking cryptograms. Cheesman's summary report describes these similarities at length and opines that the language of the plate may be Cypriot, while omitting the findings of Bird, et al without comment. Cheesman included a photograph of the plate in his book on Ancient Writing on Metal Plates.
Two days ago I walked through an exhibit on metal plates in the Joseph Smith building at BYU, where a replica of the Lambayeque plate still features prominently as an evidence of the truth of the Book of Mormon.
