The hard gold (Au) vs. hard gold flashed Palladium-Nickel (PdNi) question is not a new one. There is conflicting assessments of whether hard Au and PdNi perform equivalently or not. Extensive qualification and re-qualification data is available, but this testing by definition is designed to ‘pass’ or ‘fail’ a part and/or meet customer demands – not directly compare variations in finish parameters. Also, this testing is done under a great variety of conditions and finish parameters.