History Main / TastyGold

* One of the characters in {{Leprechaun}} accidentally swallows one of the titular leprechaun's coins while doing this (he's not that bright). The best part is the Leprechaun's plan to get it out: slash the guy's gut open using ''the buckle on his hat''.

* Disney's ''{{Pinocchio}}'' plays with this a bit; when the titular puppet gets conned into joining unscrupulous puppet show owner Stromboli's spectacle, said owner finds a foreign (vaguely Chinese) coin among the otherwise all-gold profits of the day. He uses the bite test on the coin, and it does bend, but Stromboli takes it as a sign that the foreign coin is worthless and hands it to Pinocchio as his "share" of the profits.

This may seem odd, but was actually a common way to check the quality of gold: but not for the reasons people often assume. You can only leave teeth mark in ''fake'' coins. [[hottip:Because:To get gold pure enough to leave teethmarks in requires technology that did not exist until about the 1950s and since then, well, coins that wear out are not a brilliant idea in any case. Gold coins where faked with lead (for the weight) which IS soft enough to leave bite marks in.]] [[CounterfeitCash Counterfeiters]] could make an alloy of gold and something else appropriately heavy (most often lead) and pass it off as the real thing.

* A diamond variant is shown in an episode of NCIS. While dealing with a case involving multiple fiancées and their missing money, Di Nozzo suggests the money might have been spent on the diamond in one of the engagement rings. Ziva disproves this notion by breathing on the diamond, saying that a real one wouldn't collect condensation like this one did.

* In ''Cats'', Skimbleshanks mimes biting a coin received from another cat during his big number (at least on the DVD this editor owns).

** That, and the fact that the Olympic gold medal is over 90% silver because pure gold medals for a whole games would cost billions.

* ''{{MASH}}'' showed the pearl variant: Frank Burns bought one string of pearls to give to both his wife and Margret. After Margret tested to see if they were real (they were) he switched them with fakes so he could send his wife the real ones.
** It's subverted actually. She actually realizes they were fake and lies to him in order to manipulate him into secretly giving her the real ones. It's shown that she saw him switch the two and kept her mouth shut about it.

* A variation in the episode ''Goblin's Gold'' in ''{{Merlin}}''. When a character is possessed by a goblin he begins to lick gold pieces - not to check its authenticity, but because it tastes good.

* One of the characters in [[Leprechaun]] accidentally swallows one of the titular leprechaun's coins while doing this (he's not that bright). The best part is the Leprechaun's plan to get it out: slash the guy's gut open using ''the buckled on his hat''.

This may seem odd, but was actually a common way to check the quality of gold: but not for the reasons people often assume. You can only leave teeth mark in ''real'' coins. [[hottip:Because:Gold coins were never solid gold, it is never a good idea to make coins that you can leave fingerprints in if you squeeze hard and gold is rarely so pure that you can leave imprints in it and getting it to be such is an intensive industrial process. The hard thing to fake about gold is the weight, brass does a very good job of colour so long as you polish it before handing it over so these coins would be mostly lead and softer not, as people explaining this trope often assume, harder than real coins.]] [[CounterfeitCash Counterfeiters]] could make an alloy of gold and something else appropriately heavy (most often lead) and pass it off as the real thing.

This may seem odd, but was actually a common way to check the quality of gold: but not for the reasons people often assume. You can only leave teeth mark in ''fake'' coins. [[hottip:Because:Gold coins were never solid gold, it is never a good idea to make coins that you can leave fingerprints in if you squeeze hard and gold is rarely so pure that you can leave imprints in it and getting it to be such is an intensive industrial process. The hard thing to fake about gold is the weight, brass does a very good job of colour so long as you polish it before handing it over so these coins would be mostly lead and softer not, as people explaining this trope often assume, harder than real coins.]] [[CounterfeitCash Counterfeiters]] could make an alloy of gold and something else appropriately heavy (most often lead) and pass it off as the real thing.

* ''EdEddNEddy'' once had Eddy biting a coin he got from Kevin. He ends up with splinters on his tongue, and he shouts after Kevin "Your wooden money's no good

This may seem odd, but was actually a common way to check the quality of gold: but not for the reasons people often assume. You can only leave teeth mark in ''fake'' coins. [[hottip:Because:Gold coins where never solid gold, it is never a good idea to make coins that you can leave fingerprints in if you squeeze hard and gold is rarely so pure that you can leave imprints in it and getting it to be such is an intensive industrial process. The hard thing to fake about gold is the weight, brass does a very good job of colour so long as you polish it before handing it over so these coins would be mostly lead and softer not, as people explaining this trope often assume, harder than real coins.]] [[CounterfeitCash Counterfeiters]] could make an alloy of gold and something else appropriately heavy (most often lead) and pass it off as the real thing.

* Briefly parodied in ''[[FawltyTowers Fawlty Towers]]'', when Basil Fawlty makes a small show of biting then tossing away a paper check, given to him by a guest whom he had just discovered was a con man.

* As noted on ''QI'', this trope is inverted in the modern gold industry, where gold coins are almost never sold in the pure 24K form (soft gold wears out easily, and coin collectors do not take it kindly if their collection starts turning into gold dust), but are usually hardened. Nowadays if you get a chewy gold coin, it is more likely you got a lead dud.

** Its also functional currency. In heaven, one of those coins can be turned into anything from a feast finer than any mortal has ever seen, to the finest clothing imaginable, or weapons of the finest craftmanship...or pretty much anything, really.

[[quoteright:262:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/eaten_coin_995.png]]
[[caption-width-right:262:[[MemeticMutation Om nom nom]].]]

[[quoteright:262:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/coinbite.jpg]]

This may seem odd, but was actually a common way to check the quality of gold: but not for the reasons people often assume. You can only leave teeth mark in ''fake'' coins. [[hottip:Because:Gold coins where never solid gold, it is never a good idea to make coins that you can leave fingerprints in if you squeeze hard and gold is rarely so pure that you can leave imprints in it and getting it to be such is an intensive industrial process.]] [[CounterfeitCash Counterfeiters]] could make an alloy of gold and something else appropriately heavy (most often lead) and pass it off as the real thing. These coins would be softer not, as people explaining this trope often assume, harder than real coins.

This may seem odd, but was actually a common way to check the quality of gold: before standardized coinage backed by the state, money was worth as much as it weighed, which made it tempting for [[CounterfeitCash counterfeiters]] to make an alloy of gold and something else appropriately shiny and pass it off as the real thing. The way to check this was to make sure the metal bent - gold is soft, most other metals aren't, or at least aren't as soft.

* ''SpongeBobSquarePants'' once bit on a quarter Patrick gave him, even though he had given Patrick that same quarter just moments before. Later, he does this with Squidwards money, and they all bend for some reason.

-->'''Ridcully: No!

* An episode of CSIMiami featured a child kidnapper who asked for a ransom of jewelry. When the father of the kidnapped child arrives with the ransom the kidnapper bites an emerald to test if it's real. Turns out it's not, and the kidnapper promptly adds murderer to his résumé.

This may seem odd, but was actually a common way to check the quality of gold: before standardized coinage backed by the state, money was worth as much as it weighed, which made it tempting for counterfeiters to make an alloy of gold and something else appropriately shiny and pass it off as the real thing. The way to check this was to make sure the metal bent - gold is soft, most other metals aren't, or at least aren't as soft.

* ''EdEddNEddy'' once had Eddy biting a coin he got from Kevin. He ends up with splinters on his tongue, and he shouts after Kevin "Your wooden money's no good here!"