Hello Debbie,
Look in your phone book for a local Electroplating business. They should have no difficulty in removing the existing coating.
It's simply a matter of reversing the polarity of a plating bath which is what they do with any plating jobs that come out with defects.
Cheers.
Rosco

Thanks Rosco - I'll look & see if I can find one. Debbie

Brass plating is done by putting a copper substrate on top of the base metal and then applying brass plate. You are seeing the copper substrate below the brass.

The base metal is generally chosen for low cost-it may not polish up to anything attractive or not.

Brasso or Goddard's heavy duty brass cleaner will remove most of the plating, but you will still need to buff the rest off.

Contact the electro-plater and see if they can plate the metal with nickel or chrome to give you a more finished look. If you get it plated you may as well have them plate it from it's current state-they are going to need the copper substrate to get anything to adhere to the "pot metal" below.