Is There A Place That Breaks Down The Components For Mexican Silver

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Author	Replies: 6 / Views: 1,524
Arkie Pillar of the Community United States 2637 Posts	Posted 06/17/2019 8:09 pm I was talking with someone associated with the Bill Moran School of Bladesmithing, and he was telling me that they had access to several knives that are purportedly from the Arkansas territorial period (i.e, 1836 and earlier). They were interested in testing the silver on the knives to see if it matched up with contemporary Mexican silver (coinage), but didn't have a basis for comparison. Is there a breakdown of the metals by percentage that would appear in Mexican silver somewhere? Report this Post to the Staff

sel_69l Bedrock of the Community Australia 21788 Posts	Posted 06/18/2019 01:51 am Krause World coins catalogs give the fineness of various Mexican silver coins. A potential problem in this case is that I can see the possibility that the Mexican donor coins used may have had a range of fineness for various types, and the metal from these melted together Perhaps better to test the silver fineness of the knives directly, using XRF analysis. As a parallel: I have seen Chinese cutlery that had utilized melted donor silver coins for the source for the silver. In that that case, the fineness turned out to be about .850 fine. Report this Post to the Staff
Arkie Pillar of the Community United States 2637 Posts	Posted 06/18/2019 06:46 am I guess I didn't make myself clear. I wasn't seeking the percentage of silver, but of the trace elements that would be found in XRF testing. How much gold, how much lead, etc. Report this Post to the Staff
Numismat Pillar of the Community United States 1666 Posts	Posted 06/18/2019 09:44 am This thread was a great read. In it swamperbob mentions 0.2% gold. http://goccf.com/t/259228 Report this Post to the Staff
Rdwarrior Valued Member United States 266 Posts	Posted 06/21/2019 4:26 pm I would suggest that if you have access to an XRF, then acquire a few Mexican coins of that era and run your own analysis and do a direct comparison. Sounds like your looking for the trace impurity's that probably won't show up on an official alloy spec of the era considering they didn't have the ability to check those impurity's back in the day. Report this Post to the Staff
Arkie Pillar of the Community United States 2637 Posts	Posted 06/22/2019 11:09 am True, if I had access to an XRF, that would be a simple approach to take. Report this Post to the Staff
colonialjohn Pillar of the Community United States 1757 Posts	Posted 07/16/2019 1:59 pm Arkie - There is such a paper. Contact me privately. John Lorenzo United States Report this Post to the Staff
	Replies: 6 / Views: 1,524

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