Rob Miller asked:
"Can this be used to discern the age of a badge?"
I'm not an expert or probably even qualified to answer this Rob but I would say "no" at least not directly. I would speculate that there are tell-tale "fingerprint' molecular signatures that can, in some cases, be extrapolated from the results that might be able to narrow down the period the object was cast. I mentioned that some scans of replica pieces detected Cadmium (Cd). I would speculate that it is highly unlikely that any original insignia pre WWII would contain Cd as a contaminant. It’s a sad and ironic reflection of our time and our throw-away society, that our waste, in this case probably reformed from NiCd batteries, can find their way back to us in these recycled insignia.
The dating aspect is best left answered by someone who specializes in this type of analysis and has the experience and background in interpreting metal composition. Before this becomes anywhere close to a routine test, one would need a large library of results of known original pieces to establish “normal” ranges; a labour of love by someone with near full time access to such a machine.
It has been asked if there might be a technique for analyzing radioactivity levels in objects to give, at least, pre-post Nuclear weapon development. That discussion should be addressed in a different thread I think but I have used an extremely sensitive hyper-pure germanium gamma spectrometer for looking at trace amounts of gamma radiation to determine the source of initial radiation – not exactly the same thing but the tool itself would be the device to use I think. Another little trial study to be conducted perhaps.
https://forum.keypublishing.com/foru...m-abroad/page4
Also, thanks Rob for that earlier 2011 BBF link by mooke07. I hadn’t seen that; excellent presentation.