History Main / TastyGold

* In ''[[Literature/LordPeterWimsey The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club]]'' Lord Peter [[ConversationalTroping digresses on the subject]], suggesting that you could kill a taxi driver by giving him a coin that poisons him when
* ''LightNovel/SpiceAndWolf'' has an instance that falls somewhere between this and HearMeTheMoney. [[CuteMonsterGirl Holo]] is able to 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.he bites it.

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* ''LightNovel/SpiceAndWolf'' has an instance that falls somewhere between this and HearMeTheMoney. [[CuteMonsterGirl Holo]] is able to 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 ''[[Literature/LordPeterWimsey The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club]]'' Lord Peter [[ConversationalTroping digresses on the subject]], suggesting that you could kill a taxi driver by giving him a coin that poisons him when he bites it.

** Episode 9 has Ruel feed chocolate coins to a consuming genie that got stronger the more it ate things, particularly tasty gold. [[spoiler:The genie doesn't bite before swallowing, and turns into a puny chocolate genie.]]

* In the opening episode of ''Series/ShadowAndBone'', [[TheGunslinger Jesper]] exposes a counterfeit coin by flipping it up into the air and shooting a hole through it (a bullet [[PocketProtector wouldn't go through the genuine article]]). Becomes a BrickJoke when Jesper's boss bribes a guard with a bag of coins, and the guard complains that there's a hole in one of the coins.

* In the opening episode of ''Series/ShadowsAndBone'', [[TheGunslinger Jesper]] exposes a counterfeit coin by flipping it up into the air and shooting a hole through it (a bullet [[PocketProtector wouldn't go through the genuine article]]). Becomes a BrickJoke when Jesper's boss bribes a guard with a bag of coins, and the guard complains that there's a hole in one of the coins.

** And in another, a character is given a gold coin in a shady back alley as payment for a theft, bites into it, and promptly collapses onto the cobblestones, [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness as the coin was apparently poisoned]].

** In "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS2E11FamilyAppreciationDay Family Appreciation Day]]", Granny Smith does this sort of test on a cooking pot, and then walks away, displeased with what she finds. Her teeth are left on the edge of the pot, and Apple Bloom has to retrieve them for her.

* ''Film/YellowHairAndTheFortressOfGold'': After escaping from the Tulipan, Flores pulls an arrow out pf his horse and bites it: discovering that it is solid gold.

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

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. Not related to EdibleTreasure, besides the treasure part.

** Sort of {{Subverted|Trope}} in ''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:

** 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 isn't amused.

* 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.

** And in another, a character is given a gold coin in a shady back alley as payment for a theft, bites into it, and promptly collapses onto the cobblestones, as the coin was apparently poisoned.

* In ''Film/{{Sabata}}'', Carrincha attempts to sell his medal to Banjo to raise drinking money. Banjo bites the medal at which point Carrincha admits that it is not real silver and not actually worth anything.

This tradition has mostly vanished in real life, due to most people not actually dealing with gold, but it is still seen occasionally in fiction. It's also quite common to see characters using this method to check ''other things'' to see if they're genuine. This method does work with pearls, wherein the goal is to feel the rough mother of pearl against the enamel of your teeth, as opposed to the smoother feel of fake pearls. If this is done with silver coins, though, it's a clear sign that somebody goofed; silver is quite hard, so the only sure way to check if there's some other metal beneath the surface is to drill a hole in it; ''actual'' silver tests were through [[HearMeTheMoney checking the sound it makes when bouncing off of something hard.]] There is no evidence that counterfeit coins were ever made out of wood, which could be distinguished by biting them; the old adage "Don't take any wooden nickels" referred to the practice of promoting a new store by handing out wooden tokens good for "five cents in trade". If the store goes out of business, the token is worthless.

This tradition has mostly vanished in real life, due to most people not actually dealing with gold, but it is still seen occasionally in fiction. It's also quite common to see characters using this method to check ''other things'' to see if they're genuine. This method does work with pearls, wherein the goal is to feel the rough mother of pearl against the enamel of your teeth, as opposed to the smoother feel of fake pearls. If this is done with silver coins, though, it's a clear sign that somebody goofed; silver is quite hard, so the only sure way to check if there's some other metal beneath the surface is to drill a hole in it. There is no evidence that counterfeit coins were ever made out of wood, which could be distinguished by biting them; the old adage "Don't take any wooden nickels" referred to the practice of promoting a new store by handing out wooden tokens good for "five cents in trade". If the store goes out of business, the token is worthless.

* 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 [[http://www.slate.com/content/dam/slate/articles/sports/fivering_circus/2012/08/gymnastics_team/womens-gold.jpg.CROP.rectangle3-large.jpg (as the USA Gymnastics team at the 2012 London Olympics can be seen doing here).]]
* Rafael Nadal, former number one tennis player, typically bites the trophy for his championship photos.

* In the "Luck" episode of ''VideoGame/Fallout4''[='=] "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.

** Episode 9 has Ruel feed chocolate coins to a consuming genie that gets stronger the more it ate things, particularly tasty gold. [[spoiler:The genie doesn't bite before swallowing, and turns into a puny chocolate genie.]]
* The Protagonists of ''WesternAnimation/Ben10AlienForce'' once encountered a race of aliens that eat popcorn and [[SolidGoldPoop poop out gold]], Kevin [[{{Squick}} performs this test on one of the droppings]].

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Underdog}}'': Whenever Shoeshine Boy, Underdog's secret identity, recieved a coin in payment for his services, he would bite it, even though it was unlikely that he was being paid in gold.

* ''Webcomic/GirlGenius'': At the end of Ivo Sharktooth's side-story, [[http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20171103 Ivo bites into a gold coin]] from the pay he just received for a work well done, wile pondering about it in his PrivateEyeMonologue.

[[folder:Real Life]]
* In addition to the examples listed at the top of the page, this is TruthInTelevision for Olympic athletes, who can often be seen biting the edge of their medal to prove its authenticity if they win a gold or silver medal.
[[/folder]]