They probably don't know. From information I have read elsewhere, the .9999 refers ONLY to the purity with respect to other metals, such as copper. You can almost be assured that there is more than .01% oxygen for instance, non-metallic minerals are excluded from the assay.
See http://groups-beta.google.com/group/sci.chem/browse_thread/thread/56f13f39edc2861f/8408a60dbca7cfa7?q=silver+group:sci.chem&_done=%2Fgroups%3Fas_q%3Dsilver%26num%3D10%26scoring%3Dr%26hl%3Den%26ie%3DUTF-8%26as_epq%3D%26as_oq%3D%26as_eq%3D%26as_ugroup%3Dsci.chem%26as_usubject%3D%26as_uauthors%3D%26lr%3D%26as_qdr%3D%26as_drrb%3Db%26as_mind%3D1%26as_minm%3D1%26as_miny%3D2005%26as_maxd%3D23%26as_maxm%3D2%26as_maxy%3D2005%26safe%3Doff%26&_doneTitle=Back+to+Search&&d#8408a60dbca7cfa7 In determining the purity of a metal one analyzes only certain impurities ... say for Silver they are Copper,Lead,Iron and Bismuth if they add up to less than 100 ppm ... then it is 99.99% pure ... other impurities are not counted ... a common one in zone refined (rather than electrolytic silver) is oxygen ... which can easily be well over 1000 ppm ... The same procedures exist for other metals Marshall Ron wrote: > My second request has gone unanswered, and I have made a third request > to various mint departments. I am finding this a bit odd, insomuch > they have been responsive to other request I have made about their > coins/bullion in the past. Would it be premature to assume there is a > underlining reason to their silence? > ----- Original Message ----- > From: Ron > To: [email protected]: Saturday, February 19, 2005 4:38 > AMSubject: Canadian Silver Maple Leaf - Purity > Users of the Canadian Silver Maple Leaf coins in the production of > CS. For the groups general information. This is a second request for > this information... To the: Royal Canadian Mint. > (RCM)***************************************************************************** > "I > would like to verify the stated "four 9", (9999), (99.99%) purity of > the Five Dollar Silver Maple Leaf coins.Could you please respond to > these questions about the purity of the silver, and the % of content > of other minerals, you use in minting your five dollars Silver Maple > Leaf coins. Are assayer samples taken and tested for purity for each > run of minting of the coins? Are assayer samples & testing done for > each year of mintage? Are any of these reports available to the > public? How can I get a copy of these reports for each of the years > these coins have been > minted?" > Thanks,Ron*************************************************************************** > I > will post any replies when received... -- The Silver List is a moderated forum for discussing Colloidal Silver. Instructions for unsubscribing are posted at: http://silverlist.org To post, address your message to: [email protected] Silver List archive: http://escribe.com/health/thesilverlist/index.html Address Off-Topic messages to: [email protected] OT Archive: http://escribe.com/health/silverofftopiclist/index.html List maintainer: Mike Devour <[email protected]>
