Of these metals gold was the least abundant.

It was found, however, as gold dust in the bed of the Tagus;[1016] and there were mines of it in Gallicia,[1017] in the Asturias, and elsewhere.

There was always some silver mixed with it, but in one of the Gallician mines the proportion was less than three per cent.

Elsewhere the proportion reached to ten or even twelve and a half per cent.; and, as there was no known mode of clearing the gold from it, the produce of the Gallician mine was in high esteem and greatly preferred to that of any other.
Silver was yielded in very large quantities.

"Spain," says Diodorus Siculus,[1018] "has the best and most plentiful silver from mines of all the world." "The Spanish silver," says Pliny,[1019] "is the best." When the Phoenicians first visited Spain, they found the metal held in no esteem at all by the natives.