Poor Tin, The Lowliest of Metals

From Merriam-Webster...

The Word of the Day for January 6 is:
tin-pot • \TIN-POT\ • adjective : two-bit, small-time
Example sentence: Petty despots and tin-pot dictators often pay lip service to democratic ideals to give their regimes an aura of legitimacy.
Did you know?Tin has never commanded as much respect as some other metals. As a reflection of this, its name has long been used in terms denoting the tawdry or petty. "Tin-pot" has been used for minor or insignificant things or people since the early 1800s. "Tinhorn" has named fakes or frauds (especially gamblers) since the 1880s, and "tin lizzie" has been a nickname for an inexpensive car since Ford introduced the Model T. Another example is "tin pan" (as in "Tin Pan Alley"), which referred to the tinny sound of pianos pounded furiously by musicians plugging tunes to producers.