Strange Plating on razor

I have been looking for a good Shumate blade from Austin, TX (Before they moved to St. Louis) for a while. I just got my eBay score in and the it seems the blade has some kind of plating on the tang. I saw a peice flake off. Now I have restored some old blades but I havent seen anything like this happen. Any know know what the plating is and what will it look like underneath when I start sanding?

Thanks.

After inspecting it a little more it looks lik i might be some kind of gold plating. Not sure though. Can't wait to restore this one as they are very rare. It needs alot of work, but I have seen worse. No hone wear though.