Plumbum candidum

The plumbum candidum, (white lead), of Pliny is tin. He states that it is more valuable than the ordinary or black lead, that there is a fabulous story of its having been brought in boats of osiers covered with hides from islands... 

In contrast to germanium the exposure of mankind to tin and lead was much earlier and not so dramatic18-21,28. These two elements belong to the seven main elements known to ancient man40. Up to the seventeenth century, tin and lead were often confused, as is witnessed by their Latin names, i.e. Plumbum album, Plumbum candidum (Sn) and Plumbum nigrum (Pb). Tin was known in countries of the Near East at least from the middle of the third millennium BC. Lead became known to the Egyptians at the same time as iron and silver, and very probably earlier than tin19,28. 

Discovery Upto the 1500s miners and chemists were of the opinion that there were three types of lead, i.e. common lead, tin and bismuth. In addition, antimony was a special form of bismuth. Agricola had another approach. Bismuth was neither plumbum candidum (tin) nor plumbum nigrum (lead). It was bisemutum, a metal in its own right, different from all others. 

Pliny, writing at the beginning of the Christian era (see note p. 18) was familiar with both tin and lead he referred to lead as plumbum nigrum, whilst tin was plumbum album or candidum. Nevertheless, he seemed to regard them as varieties of the same metal rather than as separate species. Plumbum by itself invariably meant lead the word stannum or stagmum sometimes meant tin and sometimes an alloy of lead and silver. 

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