320 Mr. J. W. Mallet's Rqiort on the Chemical Examination of Antiquities 



as this metal is a much more frequent mineralogical concomitant of sUver than 

 copper is, and from the fact that at least some of the ancients treated their silver 

 ores, just as at the present day, with lead, either in the metallic state, or as sulphu- 

 ret* (Galena), and subjected the alloy thus obtained to cupellation, which latter 

 process would of course remove the copper. The silver was therefore, in all 

 probability, intentionally alloyed. If all these ornaments were, though used as 

 such, occasionally employed also for money, as WoRSAAEf and others seem to 

 think, one would be led to suspect that with the silver, as with the gold ring- 

 money, something like a recognised standard metal existed when these articles 

 were in use. This may perhaps be too hasty a conclusion. 



Nos. 2 and 3 of these specimens are the only ones which differ remarkably 

 in composition from the others, especially No. 3, which actually contains one- 

 half more copper than silver, though preserving the colour and general appear- 

 ance of the latter metal. Some, at least, of this large quantity of copper Avas 

 probably added in the state of bronze, as shown by the presence of a little tin 

 in the silver alloy. On dissolving the silver in nitric acid, the tin remained 

 behind, with the gold forming a " purple of Cassius," of a very good purple 

 colour verging on red.J The uniform presence of a little gold in all the silver 

 articles examined is not surprising, since the ancients were, it is almost certain, 

 unacquainted with the process of parting. 



I may mention here, in connexion with the silver antiquities, a bluish semi- 

 metallic substance, something like dull or tarnished steel, but very much softer, 

 and brittle, used in the inlaying of small shrines, relic-cases, croziers, &c., of 

 the middle ages. It has not much lustre, but from its colour contrasts very 

 well with either silver or brass, into works in which latter metal it was fre- 

 quently introduced, but always sparingly. I had very little material to operate 

 on, only about a grain and a half, and consequently was unable to do more 



* "Escoqui non potest nisi cum plumbo nigro, aut cum vena plumbi. Gala;nam vocant, 

 quae juxta argenti venas plerumque reperitur." — PUnii Hist. Nat. lib. xxxiii. c. 6. 



■f Primeval Antiquities, pp. 59, 60. 



X " Purple of Cassius" was obtained in a similar way by M. H. Feneulle {Ann. de Chim. el de 

 Phys., sxxii. 320), on dissolving a number of ancient Koman silver coins in nitric acid. The 

 results of his rather numerous analyses certainly seem to prove that the Romans fixed no stan- 

 dard for their silver coinage. 



