If thou art rich, thou art poor for, like an ass, whose back with ingots bows, thou bearest the heavy riches but a journey, And death unloads thee. William Shakespeare
Blister steel (made as above) was melted in a crucible or in a furnace, and cast (usually) into ingots. Source: Internet
Colin Wells, The Roman Empire (Harvard University Press, 1984, 1992), p. 8. Bullion and ingots seem not to have counted as pecunia, "money," and were used only on the frontiers for transacting business or buying property. Source: Internet
During the smelting process to obtain Wootz steel ingots, woody biomass and leaves are known to have been used as carburizing additives along with certain specific types of iron rich in microalloying elements. Source: Internet
Copper ingots from Oman and bitumen which occurred naturally in Mesopotamia may have been exchanged for cotton textiles and domestic fowl, major products of the Indus region that are not native to Mesopotamia. Source: Internet
History Copper mining in Katanga dates back over 1,000 years and mines in the region were producing standard sized ingots of copper for international transport by the end of the 1st Millennium AD. Source: Internet