page_title: New Albion
section_title: Plate of Brass hoax
hierarchical_section_title: New Albion / Plate of Brass hoax
caption_attribution_description: English: Artwork in Saint Columba's, Inverness, California, showing Episcopal missions at Nova Albion, Francis Drake's 1579 landing at Point Reyes, California. It shows Drake's "Golden Hinde" along the Marin County shore near Drakes Bay at Point Reyes in California.
context_page_description: New Albion, also known as Nova Albion, was the name of the continental area north of Mexico claimed by Sir Francis Drake for England when he landed on the North American west coast in 1579. This claim became the justification for English charters across America to the Atlantic coast and soon influenced further national expansion projects on the continent. Today, Drake's landing site is known as Point Reyes, California, a marine environment which is the setting of several small towns, ranches, and Point Reyes National Seashore.
  Drake, after successfully sacking Spanish towns and plundering Spanish ships along their eastern Pacific coast colonies, sought safe harbour to prepare his ship, Golden Hind, for circumnavigation back to England. He found it on 17 June 1579, when he and his crew landed on the Pacific coast at what is now Point Reyes in Northern California. While encamped there, he had friendly relations with the Coast Miwok people who inhabited the area near his landing. Naming the area Nova Albion, or New Albion, he claimed sovereignty of the area for Elizabeth I of England, an act which would have significant long-term historical consequences.
context_section_description: In the 1900s, a hoax was perpetrated regarding the brass plate which Drake had posted at New Albion. English historian Richard Hakluyt wrote in detail of the distinctive original plate:
  At our departure hence our General set up a monument of our being there, as also of her Majesty's right and title to the same; namely a plate, nailed upon a fair great post, whereupon was engraved her Majesty's name, the day and year of our arrival there, with the free giving up of the province and people into her Majesty's hands, together with her Highness' picture and arms, in a piece of six pence of current English money, under the plate, whereunder was also written the name of our General.
  The original plate—which served as tangible notice of England's sovereignty over the land—has yet to be found. Consequently, the exact location of the monument erected by Drake is unknown.
  
  In 1936, a counterfeit, known as Drake's Plate of Brass, came to public attention, and for decades its discovery was widely believed to be that of the original. While accepted as authentic by the University of California, Berkeley, doubts persisted. Eventually, in the late 1970s, the supposed original plate failed a battery of metallurgical tests, and scientists determined that the plate was a modern creation. In 2003, it was publicly revealed that the counterfeit plate was created as a practical joke among local historians. Spinning out of control, the joke unintentionally became a public hoax and embarrassment to those who had once confirmed its authenticity.
caption: Artwork hanging in Saint Columba's, Episcopal Church and Retreat House in Inverness Park, California, shows the Golden Hind and Episcopal missions at Nova Albion.
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