It was the common material of the cheapest drinking vessels, and was readily parted with for almost anything that the merchants chose to offer.

Much of it was superficial, but the veins were found to run to a great depth; and the discovery of one vein was a sure index of the near vicinity of more.[1020] The out-put of the Spanish silver mines during the Phoenician, Carthaginian, and Roman periods was enormous, and cannot be calculated; nor has the supply even yet failed altogether.

The iron and copper of Spain are also said to have been exceedingly abundant in ancient times,[1021] though, owing to the inferior value of the metals, and to their wider distribution, but little is recorded with regard to them.

Its tin and lead, on the other hand, as being metals found in comparatively few localities, receive not infrequent mention.

The Spanish tin, according to Posidonius, did not crop out upon the surface,[1022] but had to be obtained by mining.
It was produced in some considerable quantity in the country of the Artabri, to the north of Lusitania,[1023] as well as in Lusitania itself, and in Gallicia;[1024] but was found chiefly in small particles intermixed with a dark sandy earth.