Note 1715 — BOOK XXXIV. THE NATURAL HISTORY OF METALS. (continued 2)

Such a mixture as this would in reality become more valuable than “argentarium,” as the proportion would be two-thirds of tin and one of lead. How then could the workmen merit the title of dishonest? Beckmann suggests that the tinning ought to have been done with pure tin, but that unprincipled artists employed tin mixed with lead. It is most probable, however, that Pliny himself has made a mistake, and that we should read “equal parts of black lead” (our lead); in which case the mixture passed off as “argentarium,” instead of containing equal parts of tin and lead, would contain five-sixths of lead. See Beckmann, Hist. Inv. Vol. II. p. 221. Bohn’s Edition.