It's cast iron and is not plated. Wagner had stopped plating by the early 1940s. Wagner produced unmarked goods prior to the 1960s, smooth bottom Wagner skillets having been in production since the mid-1930s. This pan's later style handle and "MADE IN USA" place it mid-1960s or later. What combination of factors that make it appear both used but not blackened are uncertain, but clean, bare CI is grey in color. It may or may not have had some kind of factory pre-seasoning such as that of marked Wagners starting back in the early 1940s. It does not appear that early factory pre-seasoning methods also had an artificial black color like that of modern Lodge Logic. The brushed look on the handle top is an artifact of manual post-casting finishing processes and is not intentional; there may have been a burr on this one that required removal.