PIN, in commerce, a little necessary implement made of brass-wire, used chiefly by the women in adjusting their dresses.
The perfection of pins consists in the stiffness of the wire and its whiteness, in the heads being well turned, and in the fineness of the points. The London pointing and whitening are in most repute: because our pin-makers, in pointing, use two steel-mills, the first of which forms the point, and the latter takes of all irregularities, and renders it smooth, and as it were polished; and in whitening, they use block-tin granulated; whereas in other countries they are said to use a mixture of tin, lead, and quick silver.