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| A very soft, silvery, dense metal which forms a dark protective oxide layer. It is toxic if ingested but has wide use in batteries and old plumbing.
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Ingot.
Lead melts at around 353 degrees C which is a temperature easily achieved with an ordinary fire or gas burner. The metal is also easily worked and resistant to corrosion by water. All these properties mean that it has been extensively employed in plumbing over the ages. In areas where the water is naturally acidic, this has given rise to cumulative poisoning of the population due to the production of soluble lead compounds which find their way into food and drinking water. Now this danger is widely appreciated, old lead pipes are replaced with copper or plastic substitutes.
Source: Estate auction
Size: 4"
Purity: 99.9%
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Bullets.
At the time of writing, these freshly cast bullets are bright silvery and don't match one's expectation that lead is dark gray in color. Probably they will darken over time as a layer of oxide forms.
Source: specially made
Size: 0.75"
Purity: 99%
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Soldiers.
There was a time when no toy cupboard was complete without a soldier-making kit that consisted of molds and a supply of lead to melt and cast. These days it is still possible to find such sets, but the lead has usually been replaced with a less toxic low-melting substitute alloy made of bismuth and tin. The soldiers here are proper lead soldiers and you can see how they were made if you match the accompanying video.
Source: specially made
Size: 1"
Purity: 99%
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Galena.
Galena, is the commonest and most important ore of lead, having been mined for over six millennia. It is heavy, lead-gray to silver with a bright metallic lustre and readily forms cubic, octahedral or cubo-octahedral crystals, as well as existing in massive, fibrous and granular forms.
Source: Mackay mineral collection
Size: 1"
Purity: 86%
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Crocoite.
Crocoite or Red Lead Ore is a brilliantly colored lead chromate mineral. Crocoite is the mineral in which chromium was first discovered in 1798, although it is not an important ore due to its scarcity. It does occur in massive form but is best known for its long slender columnar to needle shaped crystals, often striated, which form complex 'nests' and lattices of great beauty. The color is red, red-orange or yellowish.
Source: Mackay mineral collection
Size: 1"
Purity: 64%
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