Analysis of Iranian postage stamps belonging to the Qajar dynasty (18th–20th century's) by micro‐PIXE

Abstract Eighteen historical Iranian postage stamps belonging to the Qajar dynasty were analyzed by micro‐particle induced X‐ray emission (PIXE) and complementary techniques using Van de Graaff accelerator in the Nuclear Science and Technology Research Institute in Iran. The aim of this study was to determine the elemental composition of different papers and inks of Iranian stamps printed in the Netherlands, Austria, France and Iran. The results obtained in this work show differences between elemental composition of stamps printed in different places and indicate that micro‐PIXE is a suitable technique for this kind of analysis. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.