Attention is called to the process used in the 19th century for the tin coating of brass pins by boiling in a mixture of cream of tartar (potassium tartrate) and tin granules or leaves. The resulting coating is thin and uniform, and does not accumulate thickly in crevasses as does molten tin. A GalloRoman bronze plate and a coin are illustrated, the thinness and uniformity of the tin coating on which makes it highly likely that it was treated in this way. Archaeologists should be alert for this kind of coating, which is easily overlooked. (This method of plating, which was still in use in England in the early twentieth century is one of a broad class of processes today known as electroless plating. It is of industrial importance mainly in the deposition of nickel. (Note by translator.) ) -- AATA