Main index --- Minerals list --- Metal ores index cassiterite
Name:Cassiterite
Derivation:From "kassi-tira" (Babylonian) and "kastiram" (Sanscript) tin
Formula: SnO2
Description: Reddish brown. It can have crystals, although this specimen is massive (meaning the crystals are so small that you can't see them).

Cassiterite is also known as tinstone, and is an important tin ore. Tin was a very important metal in early times, as you can see from the derivation of Cassiterite. Homer describes Agamemnon's armour as having tin, gold, silver and bronze. The first metal tools were made of copper. This didn't chip or shatter, like flint but the edge would get blunt quicker. Once people mixed tin with copper to make bronze, they found that it made a sharp and strong cutting edge. It did blunt, but then it could be sharpened again. Iron, and then steel, was, of course even sharper and stronger, but it was harder to smelt and work iron, so the Bronze Age lasted for centuries before the Iron Age started..

Tin used to be slang for money, perhaps because it looked like silver. Coins were never made of tin! Tin cans are so-called because they were made of steel coated in tin. Now they are made of steel or aluminium, for cheapness and lightness, although tin is still used for coating metals.

Larger picture of Cassiterite:

Cassiterite