Abstract: A coated electrically conductive substrate has particular utility where there are multiple closely spaced leads and tin whiskers constitute a potential short circuit. Such substrates include leadframes, terminal pins and circuit traces such as on printed circuit boards and flexible circuits. This electrically conductive substrate has a plurality of leads separated by a distance capable of bridging by a tin whisker, a silver or silver-base alloy layer coating at least one surface of at least one of the plurality of leads, and a fine grain tin or tin-base alloy layer directly coating said silver layer. An alternative coated electrically conductive substrate has particular utility where debris from fretting wear may oxidize and increase electrical resistivity, such an in a connector assembly. This electrically conductive substrate has a barrier layer deposited on the substrate that is effective to inhibit diffusion of constituents the substrate into a plurality of subsequently deposited layers.