Abstract: Electronic article surveillance (EAS) tags are attached to articles of merchandise, not at the stores using EAS equipment, but in conjunction with the manufacture of these articles. At that stage, the tags are not detectable by the EAS equipment. They are made detectable upon receipt by an EAS-using store. For swept frequency RF EAS equipment, the tags are initially provided with two capacitors which make the tags resonant at a first frequency not detectable by the store's EAS equipment. To activate them, one capacitor is disabled, thereby making the tags resonant at a different frequency which is detectable.