# taggant



## JosephC (Feb 2, 2013)

Does anyone know if the mints are using taggants in their 9999 and 99999 silver rounds and if so what this/these taggant(s) may be?


----------



## philddreamer (Feb 2, 2013)

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/taggant


----------



## JosephC (Feb 3, 2013)

Thanks philddreamer for replying. I am familiar with taggants related to explosives and a variety of paper products, but after many hours of online searches I continue to fail at finding any distinct evidence regarding silver.

When I remove a few milligrams to as much as a gram from a silver Maple leaf and melt it into a bead/button and dissolve it under a microscope I consistently get way too much yellow material.

As soon as I get the time I am going to begin doing a comprehensive series of tests, including using my Vreeland spectroscope to try an isolate what this stuff is that contaminates 999, 9999 & 99999 silver rounds.

I was hoping to save a lot of time and trouble if someone on this forum had already identified this substance.

I have only began to investigate this forum and it looks as though I have many hours of examination ahead of me, for which I say thanks to you all.


----------



## qst42know (Mar 4, 2013)

I'm not qualified to argue your claim. But are your acids pure enough to blame the silver rounds?



> When I remove a few milligrams to as much as a gram from a silver Maple leaf and melt it into a bead/button and dissolve it under a microscope I consistently get way too much yellow material.



Are there other sources of contamination to consider? 
The tools used to cut a gram from the round. 
What do you melt in. 
Do you use a gas flame to melt and are the gasses pure enough.


----------



## JosephC (Apr 4, 2013)

Thanks for the replies.

Although I am not yet 100% positive it seems that contamination from the carbon arc electrodes, as well as oxy/act gas are the PROBABLE source of my confusion regarding a possible taggant.

After doing a lot of research it seems that a proprietary (secret) blend of tree resin(s) commonly referred to as pitch is the primary binder of the OLD National Carbon arc rods I use on the spectroscope. 

Oddly, even at 5000+F this resin does not vaporize, but, instead will slowly combine with silver, lead and bismuth.


----------

