Element (Sn), Atomic No. 50, density 7.30 kg/litre, M.Pt 232°C

Silver-like in colour and very malleable, but too soft to stand up to wear, and the metal is more often used as an alloying addition in copper to make bronze.

One such alloy, known as speculum, was used by the Belgic people of Gaul and Southern Britain during the two centuries before the birth of Christ.

Farthings and halfpennies were struck in tin with a central copper plug in England during the 17th century. The intention was to try and deter forgers, but the experiment was not a success.

The metal has two (or perhaps three) allotropic forms:

• Grey tin, stable below 13.2°C, which is a grey powdery substance.
• White tin, stable from 13.2°C to 161°C, which is the normal white metallic form.
• Rhombic tin, stable above 161°C to the melting point, another metallic form, has been referred to in some sources. I have no clear evidence for this form.

Thus on an ordinary English winter day white tin should turn into a grey powder. In fact this does not happen unless in extreme cold, but once some is formed, the transformation is more rapid, giving rise to what is known as tin-pest. I have heard it said that Napoleon's troops invading Russia in 1812 had tin buttons holding their trousers up, with disastrous consequences when winter set in!

Tin was used for coins in Thailand in the mid 1940's, but then the temperature does not fall so low there. Japan used a tin-zinc alloy in 1944.

When a rod of tin is bent, it emits a characteristic noise known as the 'Cry of Tin'. However, this phenomena has also been observed with other elements, particularly cadmium.

Source: http://www.tclayton.demon.co.uk/metal.html

Tin ore occurs as alluvial deposits as well as ore bodies. One of the most extensive tin mining regions in the past was Cornwall in Britain which is thought to have been mined at least by Roman times while Southeast Asia has some of the largest alluvial tin deposits. Tin was alloyed to copper to get harder bronze for making weapons, prior to the use of iron, in the Bronze Age cultures of the world. Tin mines are known from ancient Turkey dating to the third millennium BC.

Amongst the earliest bronze castings in the world is the well executed statue of a dancing girl from Mohenjodaro from the Indus Valley, while beautiful bronzes are also known from ancient Egypt such as the famous cat which are thought to have been executed by the lost wax technique. In China very impressive ceremonial vessels were cast into clay moulds by the late second millennium BC to early first millennium BC. The Greek bronze figurines of the first millennium BC are well known. Some of the most beautiful and well executed bronze castings in the world are the icons from the Chola period in the Tanjavur area of south India (ca 10th c. AD). South Indian bronzes were mostly solid cast whereas images from Southeast Asia are mostly hollow cast. Mirrors were made of bronze in different part of old world including India. Investigations by Srinivasan show that that the earliest and continuing use of artifacts of rapidly quenched high-tin bronzes is from the Indian subcontinent.

See also, Tin: History and Etymology http://www.vanderkrogt.net/elements/elem/sn.html