By J. Buchman, Esq. 



235 



plus the zinc, for the necessary ingredients to make bronze with 

 copper are all but absent. 



In "Ore's Dictionary, 1860, article " Alloys," p. 93, we have the 

 following : — 



" It is not a little curious to find that some of the coins of high 

 antiquity contain zinc, which does not appear to have been known 

 as a metal before 1280, when Albertus Magnus speaks of zinc as 



a semi-metal. " "The probability is that calamine 



(zinc ore) was known from the earliest times as a peculiar earth, al- 

 though it was not thought to be an ore of zinc or of any other metal.' , 



Seeing then that the results as exhibited in the coins and the 

 fibula are so good, it may be worth while at this day to con- 

 sider whether we could get a better brass from the mixture of 

 the earth calamine with copper directly, without first freeing the 

 metalic zinc from the calamine. 



But the question will arise in some minds as to whether the 

 Romans were altogether unacquainted with metallic zinc. One 

 would imagine that brass of the character of that presented by 

 these coins could hardly have been arrived at by accident, nor 

 would the results be so certain even with known quantities of 

 calamine. 



Again, what influence might this power of getting so bright 

 and gold-like a metal from an earth, (as performed by the 

 Romans in our own country), have had in favouring the pursuits 

 of alchemy, and the transmutation of metals. 



These coins then seem to me to have an interest beyond their 

 mere value as fine examples of their period, or of good impres- 

 sions of image and superscription ; and I have dwelt upon them 

 in the light in which they have been presented to me, in the 

 hope of drawing attention to so interesting a subject. 



Amongst the iron materials, I would mention the bit as an 

 evidence that the antiquary must not reject articles as not being 

 archaic, from their likeness to those of our own time, nor from 

 the fact that the tooth of time has failed to make much im- 

 pression upon their structure. The bit and the spear-head are 

 marvellously like some of a much later date, but they were 



