History Main / TastyGold

This may seem odd, but was actually a common way to check the quality of gold: but not for the reasons people often assume. Gold is a soft metal, and thus conventional wisdom says that the deeper the imprint your teeth make (without revealing a different metal beneath the gold), the purer it is. However, this test would not be foolproof: Gold coins can have a core of lead (for the weight) which ''is'' soft enough to leave bite marks in. In fact, historically, gold was typically alloyed with other, harder metals to make it harder, while still maintaining the standard gold weight. Thus, the bite test was actually a means of detecting a lead forgery (teeth marks) versus a real minted gold alloy coin (no marks). Also, gold is an excellent heat sink; most metals quickly heat up when they're held, but gold remains cold in one's hand for some time - and the lips, tongue and teeth are even better than fingertips at detecting changes in temperature. Alloyed or cored gold heats up faster, and biting it is an easy way to test this - though in more polite settings, merchants kept a bottle of acid by the cash register; gold is a noble metal which is resistant to change by corrosion, oxidation or acid, so a merchant could determine the purity of gold by putting a drop of acid on it AKA the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acid_test_%28gold%29 "Acid Test."]]

* Buu does this to a coin in ''Anime/DragonBallZ'', but it's not to see if it's gold, but to see if it's candy.

Related is HearMeTheMoney, when they check the currency by ''listening to it''. Not to be confused with EatDirtCheap or ExtremeOmnivore, where biting the gold is followed by chewing and swallowing it.

* The protagonist of children's novel ''The Chocolate Touch'' has seen people do this, so he bites his best friend's new coin. Unfortunately, [[BlessedWithSuck anything he touches with his mouth turns to chocolate]], so his friend now has a worthless chocolate coin.

[[folder:Visual novels]]

This may seem odd, but was actually a common way to check the quality of gold: but not for the reasons people often assume. Gold is a soft metal, and thus conventional wisdom says that the deeper the imprint your teeth make (without revealing a different metal beneath the gold), the purer it is. However, this test would not be foolproof: Gold coins can have a core of lead (for the weight) which ''is'' soft enough to leave bite marks in. In fact, historically, gold was typically alloyed with other, harder metals to make it harder, while still maintaining the standard gold weight. Thus, the bite test was actually a means of detecting a lead forgery (teeth marks) versus a real minted gold alloy coin (no marks). Also, gold is an excellent heat sink; most metals quickly heat up when they're held, but gold remains cold in one's hand for some time - and the lips, tongue and teeth are even better than fingertips at detecting changes in temperature. Alloyed or cored gold heats up faster, and biting it is an easy way to test this - though in more polite settings, merchants kept a bottle of acid by the cash register; gold is a noble metal which is resistant to change by corrosion, oxidation or acid, so a merchant could determine the purity of gold by putting a drop of acid on it AKA the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acid_test_%28gold%29 "Acid Test"]].

* Possibly the only common example in the RealLife modern world is how Olympic athletes will often get photos taken with them "biting" their (plated silver) gold medals (as the USA Gymnastics team at the 2012 London Olympics can be seen doing[[http://www.slate.com/content/dam/slate/articles/sports/fivering_circus/2012/08/gymnastics_team/womens-gold.jpg.CROP.rectangle3-large.jpg here]]).

* In ''Webcomic/NoRestForTheWicked'', Perrault bites a ring while checking out a roomful of gold and silver to [[http://www.forthewicked.net/archive/02-28.html confirm it's enchanted]].

* In the ''WebVideo/FiveSecondFilms'' [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ic0SaWgDFJE 24k Golden Labrador]], Paul tests [[SolidGoldPoop golden dog poop]] this way. [[spoiler:Unfortunately for him, it's only gold-plated.]]

* Sort of {{Subverted|Trope}} in Literature/{{Discworld}} novel ''Discworld/LordsAndLadies'', Ridcully loses $8,000 at "Cripple Mr. Onion" to Casanunda, a self proclaimed "outrageous liar" who "cannot play it very well." As he pays up, Casanundra stops him without even biting into it:
-->'''Casanunda:''' You don't happen to have 'outrageous liar' on ''your'' visiting card, by any chance?
-->'''Ridcully:''' No!
-->'''Casanunda:''' It's just that I can recognize chocolate money when I see it.
** Tasty gold indeed!
** In ''Discworld/GuardsGuards'' the dragon is offered the newly forged crown, and licks it. They're very chemically sensitive apparently. Vimes considers the chances of the crown actually being made out of gold (It's mentioned elsewhere that "gold" things in Ankh-Morpork have just as much gold in them as there is gold in seawater), then compares the situation to finding out that sugar was actually salt after having put three spoonfuls in your coffee. The dragon then overkills the priest who gave it the crown (shooting a flame so hot that nothing is left but smoke); suffice to say, the dragon wasn't amused.

[[folder:Live-Action TV ]]
* Subverted in ''Series/{{Firefly}}''--Mal is trying to offload some stolen goods (which look like a stack of gold bricks). The buyer bites into it and chews - it's revealed that the bricks were actually [[FoodPills highly condensed food]] in some sort of foil wrapping, invaluable on a newly {{terraform}}ed frontier world.

* In the "Luck" episode of [[Fallout4 Fallout 4's]] "What Makes You S.P.E.C.I.A.L.?" promotional videos, Vault Boy does this with one of a heap of [[WeirdCurrency bottle caps]] he's happened upon, grinning happily at his good fortune - and also loses a tooth for his trouble.

[[folder: Web Comics]]

[[folder: Web Original]]

* Happens regularly in ''ScoobyDoo''.

* The pearl-tasting version comes up in the Creator/RaymondChandler story "Red Wind", when private eye Philip Marlowe does the test.

* The pearl-tasting version comes up in the RaymondChandler story "Red Wind".

-->'''Hair:''' Of all the rotten luck. A million in gold gobaloons and it all has to go back to the kingdom of Ptomania.\\

As an interesting side-note, gold is very non-reactive and therefore biologically inert, meaning it's actually safe to eat and will pass through the digestive system without being absorbed. Some particularly fancy foods (often desserts) are adorned with gold leaf decorations which are meant to be eaten, and certain brands of alcohol contain tiny flakes of gold. In actual fact, this is the ultimate form of garnish. Because gold is non-reactive with anything in the human body, it does not actually have a flavor.

-->Aladdin: Mom, that was the first thing I did!
-->Aladdin's Mom: Never hurts to get a second opinion! [[LampshadeHanging It tastes right.]]
* A variation in the episode "Goblin's Gold" in ''Series/{{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 episode of ''{{Mathnet}}'' has a gemologist test a pearl's authenticity by popping it his mouth.

[[folder:Magic]]
* A common micro-magic illusion based on this trope involves the magician biting a coin and taking a chunk out of it. The magician usually leaves behind tooth marks as well. The illusion can involve a spectator's coin, which is returned unharmed.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Tabletop Games]]
* Parodied in ''TabletopGame/{{Exalted}}'', where the primary currency in heaven is ambrosia, a golden substance that tastes like the most wonderful food ever, wrapped in a thin golden foil. Yes, Heaven pays people in chocolate coins. New employees are often warned not to eat their operational budget.
** It's 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, weapons of the finest craftmanship, or pretty much anything, really.
* There's an Event Card in ''{{TableTopGame/Talisman}}'' called [[http://www.talismanwiki.com/Fool%27s_Gold Fool's Gold]] which depicts a man biting a fake coin, looking understandably upset.

-->"Is it real?"
-->"Bite it and see. And that goes for me as well."

[[folder: Video Games]]
* In ''[[VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorney Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Trials and Tribulations]]'', Maggey bites Phoenix's Attorney's Badge to see if it is real or not. It does get a bite mark, but she then admits that she has no idea whether or not that means it's real.
** It happens again in ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorneySpiritOfJustice'', where Princess Rayfa chomps down on his (new) badge in protest to his profession. They apparently make badges out of tougher stuff now, since she failed to even scratch it.

* A parody of this trope in [[http://www.secretlivesofmobs.com/index.php?strip_id=29 this]] Secret Lives of Mobs strip.
* In Webcomic/NoRestForTheWicked, Perrault bites a ring while checking out a roomful of gold and silver to [[http://www.forthewicked.net/archive/02-28.html confirm it's enchanted]].

* In Tasian's GagSub of VideoGame/OsuTatakaeOuendan 2, Mana's motivation to win the gold medal is "translated" to this trope: she wanted to find out if it was made of chocolate.
* In the [[WebVideo/FiveSecondFilms 5 Second Film]] [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ic0SaWgDFJE 24k Golden Labrador]], Paul tests [[SolidGoldPoop golden dog poop]] this way. [[spoiler:Unfortunately for him, it's only gold-plated.]]

[[folder: Western Animation]]

* Disney's ''Disney/{{Pinocchio}}'' plays with this a bit: when the eponymous 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. It being the ''color'' of lead probably doesn't help.

** Ruel biting into a coin is his default pose in the recap at the start of the latter episodes of season 1. He also does this in episode 13 after "saving" a kama from sinking in the sea.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/PussInBoots'' mini movie "The Three Diablos", Puss gives the three kittens one gold coin each. The first two do the standard bite to see if it's genuine and the third one tries copying them by swallowing the coin whole.

* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' involving time travel, Bender tested a ha'penny--[[{{Squick}} which had been in a chamberpot]]--this way.

-->'''Hair:''' Of all the rotten luck. A million in gold gobaloons and it all has to go back to the kingdom of Ptomania.
-->'''Square:''' A pity. They're delicious.

* Parodied in ''{{Exalted}}'', where the primary currency in heaven is ambrosia, a golden substance that tastes like the most wonderful food ever, wrapped in a thin golden foil. Yes, Heaven pays people in chocolate coins. New employees are often warned not to eat their operational budget.

* In ''[[VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorney Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Trials and Tribulations]]'', one of the characters bites Phoenix's attorney badge to see if it is real or not. She then admits that she has no idea whether a real badge would have a bite mark or not.

* Sort of {{Subverted|Trope}} in Literature/{{Discworld}} novel ''Lords and Ladies'', Ridcully loses $8,000 at "Cripple Mr. Onion" to Casanunda, a self proclaimed "outrageous liar" who "cannot play it very well." As he pays up, Casanundra stops him without even biting into it:

** In ''Guards! Guards!'' the dragon is offered the newly forged crown, and licks it. They're very chemically sensitive apparently. Vimes considers the chances of the crown actually being made out of gold (It's mentioned elsewhere that "gold" things in Ankh-Morpork have just as much gold in them as there is gold in seawater), then compares the situation to finding out that sugar was actually salt after having put three spoonfuls in your coffee. The dragon then overkills the priest who gave it the crown (shooting a flame so hot that nothing is left but smoke); suffice to say, the dragon wasn't amused.

and [[PirateParrot Polly]] can't have one.]]

This may seem odd, but was actually a common way to check the quality of gold: but not for the reasons people often assume. Gold is a soft metal, and thus conventional wisdom says that the deeper the imprint your teeth make (without revealing a different metal beneath the gold), the purer it is. However, this test would not be foolproof: Gold coins can have a core of lead (for the weight) which ''is'' soft enough to leave bite marks in. In fact, historically, gold was typically alloyed with other, harder metals to make it harder, while still maintaining the standard gold weight. Thus, the bite test was actually a means of detecting a lead forgery (teeth marks) versus a real minted gold alloy coin (no marks). Also, gold is an excellent heat sink; most metals quickly heat up when they're held, but gold remains cold in one's hand for some time - and the lips, tongue and teeth are even better than fingertips at detecting changes in temperature. Alloyed or cored gold heats up faster, and biting it is an easy way to test this - though in more polite settings, merchants kept a bottle of acid by the cash register; gold is a noble metal which is resistant to change by corrosion, oxidation or acid, so a merchant could determine the purity of gold by putting a drop of acid on it AKA the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acid_test_%28gold%29 "Acid Test."]]

* Sort of {{Subverted}} in Literature/{{Discworld}} novel ''Lords and Ladies'', Ridcully loses $8,000 at "Cripple Mr. Onion" to Casanunda, a self proclaimed "outrageous liar" who "cannot play it very well." As he pays up, Casanundra stops him without even biting into it:

[[folder: Tabletop Games ]]

* In some productions of ''{{Cats}}'', Skimbleshanks mimes biting a coin received from another cat during his big number.

[[folder: Video Games ]]
* In ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorneyTrialsAndTribulations'', one of the characters bites Phoenix's attorney badge to see if it is real or not. She then admits that she has no idea whether a real badge would have a bite mark or not.
* In the {{Infocom}} game ''VideoGame/{{Sorcerer}}'', you acquire a collection of Zorkmids. If you choose to BITE ZORKMID, the game replies "Yep, it's real."

[[folder: Web Comics ]]

* In Tasian's GagSub of OsuTatakaeOuendan 2, Mana's motivation to win the gold medal is "translated" to this trope: she wanted to find out if it was made of chocolate.

[[folder: Western Animation ]]

** [[TropeNamer The name comes from]] a LampshadeHanging in "[[Recap/AvatarTheLastAirbenderTheWaterbendingMaster The Waterbending Master]]", where, after receiving payment for a job, a pirate bites into one of the gold coins and announces "That's some tasty gold!"

* The 2000 MiniSeries of Series/ArabianNights has Aladdin's mother biting the gold the EthnicMagician gave her son.

This may seem odd, but was actually a common way to check the quality of gold: but not for the reasons people often assume. Gold is a soft metal, and thus conventional wisdom says that the deeper the imprint your teeth make (without revealing a different metal beneath the gold), the purer it is. However, this test would not be foolproof: Gold coins can have a core of lead (for the weight) which ''is'' soft enough to leave bite marks in. In fact, historically, gold was typically alloyed with other, harder metals to make it harder, while still maintaining the standard gold weight. Thus, the bite test was actually a means of detecting a lead forgery (teeth marks) versus a real minted gold alloy coin (no marks). Also, gold is an excellent heat sink; most metals quickly heat up when they're held, but gold remains cold in one's hand for some time - and the lips, tongue and teeth are even better than fingertips at detecting changes in temperature. Alloyed or cored gold heats up faster, and biting it is an easy way to test this - though in more polite settings, merchants kept a bottle of acid by the cash register; gold is a noble metal which is resistant to change by corrosion, oxidation or acid, so a merchant could determine the purity of gold by putting a drop of acid on it AKA the "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acid_test_%28gold%29 Acid Test.]]"

* ''TheHairBearBunch'': The bears discover a treasure of Gobaloons under Peevly's office, but instead of being rich, they learn that the gobaloons were stolen by a pirate and anyone trying to confiscate and spend it will be locked up in jail for theft. While bemoaning their situation, Square is eating some of the coins.

* ''LightNovel/SpiceAndWolf'' has an instance that falls somewhere between this and HearMeTheMoney. [[CuteMonsterGirl Holo]] is able judge the purity of silver coins just by clinking them together, leading to the plot point that a city is minting coins that have a lower silver content and are thus worth less.

* In ''{{A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum}}'', Marcus Lycus slips into an orgy disguised as one of his own prostitutes. Upon giving a coin to the guard, we get this exchange:

* ''Film/HellboyII: The Golden Army'' has a goblin blacksmith who bites on a piece of metal. It's not gold, but he bites it anyway.

* In ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorney: Trials and Tribulations'', one of the characters bites Phoenix's attorney badge to see if it is real or not. She then admits that she has no idea whether a real badge would have a bite mark or not.

!!Examples

[[folder:Anime]]
* A common method of testing coins in the ''{{Manga/Berserk}}'' universe. Guts does this with a coin of his pay after killing Bazuso.
* Buu does this to a coin in ''DragonBall'', but it's not to see if it's gold, but to see if it's candy.
* ''SpiceAndWolf'' has an instance that falls somewhere between this and HearMeTheMoney. [[CuteMonsterGirl Holo]] is able judge the purity of silver coins just by clinking them together, leading to the plot point that a city is minting coins that have a lower silver content and are thus worth less.

[[folder:Film]]

* Used in ''ASongOfIceAndFire'' quite regularly. In one book, a young girl does this because she's seen other people do it, but confesses that she doesn't know how gold is 'supposed to taste'.

*** In ''A Dance with Dragons'', [[spoiler: Arya thinks of the very same trick for her first assassination for the Faceless Men, but takes it a step further. During what seems like a botched pickpocketing attempt, she slips a poisoned coin into the purse of an insurance man's customer, leaving the insurer to die of an apparent heart attack a while after he bites the gold. Not only is it impossible to trace the death back to Arya, it doesn't even look like an assassination]].

* Mentioned in the ''ComicBook/CartoonHistoryOfTheUniverse'' in the leadup to Archimedes' famous discovery: the king needed a way to determine whether his crowns were counterfeit without having to rely on this trope.

[[folder: Live Action TV ]]
* Subverted in ''{{Series/Firefly}}''--Mal is trying to offload some stolen goods (which look like a stack of gold bricks). The buyer bites into it and chews - it's revealed that the bricks were actually [[FoodPills highly condensed food]] in some sort of foil wrapping, invaluable on a newly {{terraform}}ed frontier world.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Wakfu}}'' had Ruel feed chocolate coins to a consuming genie that got stronger the more it ate things, particularly tasty gold. [[spoiler: The genie didn't bite before swallowing, and turned into a puny chocolate genie.]]

* A variation in the episode ''Goblin's Gold'' in ''Series/{{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.
* 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.
* One episode of {{Mathnet}} has a gemologist test a pearl's authenticity by popping it his mouth.

This may seem odd, but was actually a common way to check the quality of gold: but not for the reasons people often assume. Gold is a soft metal, and thus conventional wisdom says that the deeper the imprint your teeth make (without revealing a different metal beneath the gold), the purer it is. However, this test would not be foolproof: Gold coins can have a core of lead (for the weight) which ''is'' soft enough to leave bite marks in. In fact, historically, gold was typically alloyed with other, harder metals to make it harder, while still maintaining the standard gold weight. Thus, the bite test was actually a means of detecting a lead forgery (teeth marks) versus a real minted gold alloy coin (no marks). Also, gold is an excellent heat sink; most metals quickly heat up when they're held, but gold remains cold in one's hand for some time - and the lips, tongue and teeth are even better than fingertips at detecting changes in temperature. Alloyed or cored gold heats up faster, and biting it is an easy way to test this - though in more polite settings, merchants kept a bottle of acid by the cash register; gold is a noble metal which is resistant to change by corrosion, oxidation or acid, so a merchant could determine the purity of gold by putting a drop of acid on it AKA the [["https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acid_test_%28gold%29 Acid Test."]]