Common makeup of capacitor and other component leads

A couple days ago I had a Nichicon 1000uf 50v KA(M) capacitor roll off of my coffee table and stick the long bar magnet that I’ve attached to the edge of my coffee table. I affix these long magnets to my coffee table in order to have tools I want to access quickly and easily while I’m working on various projects. But I was quite surprised to see this capacitor stuck to the magnet by its leads. The reason I was so surprised, is that it’s been my understanding that the leads are made of copper with a tin/lead coating to prevent corrosion as well as promote the ability to solder to the leads. So, afaict, there should not be anything within these leads which should cause them to have a slight attraction to any magnets, let alone a quite strong attraction that I was witnessing. This caused me to check a bunch of different capacitors, and most of them stuck to the magnets as well. This is completely baffling me:

Tin? Not magnetic
Lead? Not magnetic
Copper? Not magnetic

So WHY are these freaking leads magnetic?!?!?!?

Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Hi there kyan.baird,

Tin is considered paramagnetic, or weakly attracted to magnets. These will show properties of being magnetic, and will be enough to stick to your magnet bar.

I checked my inventory bin and found that 1980’s and older parts only just barely stick to a magnet, newer ones all do. I’m guessing it’s the reduction, and final replacement, of lead with mostly more tin.

This provided a handy way to sort through my bin to get rid of the oldest parts (that likely aren’t really any good at 30+ years old). Thanks @kyan.baird & @Ryan_2724 for this thread.

Great question kyan baird.
PaulHutch, this is good information and i’m sure other users will find the information you provided valuable.