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Tin
The tin can was patented by Peter Durand, a British merchant in 1810, but it took until 1858 for Ezra Warner to invent the tin can opener in the U.S. which was used by the military there during its Civil War. I presume it took so long because they were so thick. The cans, not the people.
In the 1960's the tin can (actually made from steel with a thin layer of tin) began to be replaced by aluminium, which was more malleable and just as effective against corrosion.
In the 1980’s modern forensics found only tiny traces of tin in Henry 1st’s coins.
