Reduced service, September 2026. The Institute remains open and its collections, card indexes and correspondence are in order, but it works at the minimum compatible with the care of the material and with obligations already entered into. The reading room opens on Wednesday and Thursday, 10.00–15.30 and by written appointment only; three posts stand vacant and may not be filled; no colloquium is being held this year; and three works are complete and unprinted for want of the printing budget. The reasons are set out under History of the Institute. These pages are revised twice a year, in March and September.

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Division VI · Laboratory and material analysis Abteilung VI — Labor und Materialanalyse

The division was established in 1974 and is the reason for the word Laboratory in the Institute's name. Its starting point was simple: a date cannot be settled by eye alone, and where two inks or two papers look alike the eye gives up. One person is in post since the second laboratory post fell vacant in July 2025, in the instrument room (EG-1) and the balance room (EG-2) on the ground floor of the laboratory building, sharing the de-ionised water and the extractor bench with the repair workshop next door. The de-ionised water plant and the two rooms that need two people to work in them are the division's chief difficulty, and are described under section 3. The division works first for the Institute's own projects, then for partner institutions and public museums. It does not authenticate objects for private owners and does not value them.

1. What the division works on

Metal composition and striking practice

Portable X-ray fluorescence is used to measure the elements present in coins and in seal matrices, so that the recipe of a mint can be followed over time. The division says on every occasion, and prints on every report, that the result is semi-quantitative and may be used for comparison only; it is not a figure for fineness that can be quoted as such.

Ink and paper

Colour, penetration and fluorescence distinguish iron-gall ink, carbon ink and modern ink; raking and transmitted light show the density of the laid lines, the direction in which the sheet was formed, and any repair. Since the fibre projector failed in 2019, the fibre composition of paper is measured for the Institute by a partner institution, and only visual and fluorescence observations are made here.

Specific gravity and non-destructive testing

Specific gravity is taken on the precision balance by weighing in air and in water, and is used as a check on the element analysis. Sampling from an original is never done. Where nothing else will answer the question, the applicant is advised to approach an institution equipped for it.

Conservation: technical support and advice

Advice is given on the choice of repair materials, pastes, lining papers and protective covers, and on the temperature and humidity appropriate to a store or a display case. Treatment itself is the business of the repair workshop; the division supplies the material science.

2. The instruments

The complete list of the laboratory's equipment is on the premises page, Table 2. Those the division uses daily, and their state, are these; the list is checked twice a year, in March and September.

3. How testing is done

1. Ask what the question is. An application must say what is to be decided — whether two coins come from the same mint, for instance — so that the method and the number of measurements can be chosen. Where no question has been formulated, the division formulates one with the applicant before starting.
2. Nothing destructive. No sample is taken, nothing is scraped and nothing is burnt. Where that is the only way, the applicant is advised to go elsewhere.
3. The semi-quantitative warning is printed. On the first page of every X-ray fluorescence report, in the same size of type as the rest: the result is semi-quantitative and is for comparison only. It is never relegated to a footnote.
4. Two people present. Work with L-02 or L-04 requires two people, one operating and one recording, and the record includes the date, the operator, the room conditions and the duration of exposure.
5. Raw values first. Reports give the measured values before any converted figure, and state the standard used for the conversion and where it comes from.
6. No attributions. A report says what was observed. It does not pronounce on authenticity, date or value; questions of date and attribution go to Division I or Division II and are answered by their procedures.

4. Work done for others

5. Projects and publications

6. Commissioning work

Every test record is entered in Division V's index of test records (KI-10, at present 18,740 entries) and is subject to the ordinary closure periods: where the applicant is a private person, the name does not appear in any document supplied to others, and the record itself is kept for twenty years. Work is not accepted on condition that it be left out of the index.