At the National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland, x-ray fluorescence was used to analyze 14th-century silver coins. Tate describes the spectrometer and its functioning, and discusses the shortcomings of the technique. He presents the results of 26 analyses, noting that compositional differences are small over the periods in which they were minted, and discusses the composition of a Pictish pennanular brooch-one of several Viking silver pieces studied after the coin project was temporarily put aside.