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 Replies: 8 / Views: 1,433 |
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Moderator
 Australia
16806 Posts |
It's a Hollywood trope, seen in spaghetti westerns, cartoons and anything else where the stereotypical "Old West" is portrayed.
The stranger goes into a saloon and buys a round of drinks, slamming a gold coin down on the counter. The ol' barkeep, not trusting the stranger or his money, picks up the coin, gives it a good hard bite with their canine teeth, then takes the coin out of his mouth, inspects the resultant damage to the coin, smiles and decides the stranger is trustworthy after all.
I believe I readily understand the logic behind the "bite test": coinage gold is soft, but not too soft. If a fake gold coin is made of some hard metal (like brass), the bite won't take, and if it's made of some other soft metal like lead, it will bite easily but the non-gold colour will show up on the bite-mark indentation.
My question: is there any actual historical record of coins routinely getting the "bite test" in the Old West? What about actual surviving coins with multiple bite marks in them? Or is this just some Hollywood myth-making, perhaps based off of a single actual anecdote that happened to one person, once?
Obviously, if a gold coin were to receive multiple bite-marks, it would eventually get to such a dishevelled state that it would be withdrawn, melted down, and struck into new coin. So I wouldn't necessarily expect all such coins to have survived. But I can't seem to find much actual evidence supporting the practice, either written or numismatic.
Any input? Don't say "infinitely" when you mean "very"; otherwise, you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite. - C. S. Lewis
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
10982 Posts |
With the condition of most people's teeth in that era coupled with a gold/copper alloy of significant hardness? Sounds like a fairy tale to me.
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
6451 Posts |
Gold was used for dental fillings, so it's got to be at least as hard as teeth.
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Valued Member
New Zealand
188 Posts |
It's the lead thing. Fakes were made of lead (similar density to gold*) and painted gold. Lead WILL yield to teeth, even rotty ones, because it's that soft.
*denser enough that it could fool the unitiated who did not have the luxury of a scale, but still had at least a couple of teeth.
Do not read this sentence.
Edited by Buffalo soldat
05/27/2025 2:11 pm
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
19112 Posts |
You don't suppose some of those coins judged to have 'road rash' were really gnawed on...........? Being silly, of course.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
3342 Posts |
I just took a gold half eagle pocket coin with a smoothed-off rim and bit it. No dent. When I gnawed it I made a light scratch.The mark will wear off easily so I doubt that any Old West coin bites would be discernable. One mark is the same as another.
"Two minutes ago I would have sold my chances for a tired dime." Fred Astaire
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Moderator
United States
187582 Posts |
An interesting discussion.  I have always believed, similar to Sap, that biting gold was kind of a Goldilocks test: not too hard, not too soft, just right.  |
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
24894 Posts |
Quote:
I just took a gold half eagle pocket coin with a smoothed-off rim and bit it. thq, thank you for saving my tooth from this test! Inordinately fascinated by bits of metal with strange markings and figures
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
10982 Posts |
Quote:
It's the lead thing. Fakes were made of lead (similar density to gold) and painted gold. Lead WILL yield to teeth, even rotty ones, because it's that soft. Just an FYI, lead is nowhere close to gold in density. Lead is similar in density to silver, just over half gold's density so a gold painted lead fake would be very lightweight. I think biting into a coin to test and see if it's gold is an old wives-tale. |
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Replies: 8 / Views: 1,433 |
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Posted 05/26/2025 10:52 pm
