TAGGANT (microtaggant)

A kind of “marker” imbedded in ink, coating, glue, or substrate. Taggants are popular in security printing, and are usually for authenticating a product. There are several kinds of Taggants ranging from magnetic, to optical, to X-ray, to UV, among others. Some Taggants can be programmed with complex codes that get registered (similar to a barcode). The Taggant is usually read by an instrument; sometimes a hand-held instrument like a laser, sometimes a sophisticated laboratory device.