Looking For Ideas To Make It Worthwhile To Buy An Electronic Metals Tester

to the Community!

I agree that the Sigma tester is exactly what you need. The coin shop I work at has one and we use it every day. In addition, my coin club recently purchased one for club use, and it is brought to each meeting for members to use.

Well, as far as scarcity goes out here in Kansas City, there are only 2 shops I know of that have them. A jewelry shop in Liberty and a coin shop in Independence. Neither of which are convenient for me.

Again, I would only buy one if I were taking in large amounts of raw coins. I have arrangements with local pawn shops to buy up their inventory, but for now, the Neanderthal methods I use give me enough piece of mind.

I think XRF testing is what is being referred to when "metals' testing is being discussed.

XRF means X-Ray Florescence.
What is does, is scan the surface of the metal to be tested with a beam of X-Rays.
A florescence scatter bounces off the surface, the measurable characteristic of which will be different for the proportion of concentration every metal, in the metal surface.

By itself, XRF has it's limitations.
It will not work for suspect faked coins that have been metal plated.
Because only the metal surface is scanned, XRF testing by itself, is useless for investigating the metal alloy in the body of the object to be tested.
Specific gravity testing or ultrasound testing as well, is required for a conclusive investigation.

Therefore, (another way of saying it),
it IS however, very useful when XRF testing is done in conjunction with specific gravity testing, weight measurement, and volume measurement.

Those tests together, especially in conjunction with ultrasound, provided the proof necessary uncover the plot of fake gold encased tungsten cored bullion bars a few years ago. (Tungsten has the same density as gold).

Lawrence Bragg won a Nobel Prize for Physics for original research work done on X-Ray florescence, in the early 1900's.