the.com/pot metal
Jewelry's cheap disguise: zinc alloy pretending to be something that survives contact with water.
means A cheap, soft alloy (often zinc- or lead-based, sometimes with tin or copper) cast quickly into costume jewelry and trinkets, prized for being easy to melt and mold rather than for lasting.
from The name comes straight from the foundry floor: 'pot metal' was whatever mixed, miscellaneous scrap metal got thrown into the melting pot and recast, with no fuss made over purity or alloy consistency. Since it was cheap and low-grade by nature, the term drifted into general use for any inferior casting alloy — and eventually became shorthand among jewelers and collectors for the flashy, corrosion-prone base metals used to fake out gold and silver.
- melting point
- low enough to cast in a kitchen pot
- common fate
- cracks or crumbles within a few years
- etymology
- named for melting scrap in literal pots
- disguise skill
- often plated to impersonate gold or silver