Minerals and Metals in Ancient India v1.c24.s2.3

v1.c24.s2.3

Warmington reported that about the time of Augustus, a ‘copper’ flagon of ‘Indian’ workmanship, excatly resembling silver, reached the Roman empire as a substitute for silver. Warmington believed that this was Chinese Tutenag(ue) or white copper. (Warmington, 1928, 1974: 257) Khan points out (1985: 220) that China had improved furnace bellows to develop cupro-nickel alloys, and that around 180 BC the coins of the Bactrian ruler Euthydamus II contained up to 20 per cent nickel. It is also possible that the ‘copper flagon of Indian workmanship exactly resembling silver’ was fakesilver or zinc, a recently discovered Indian product.