Teethmarks

[physics-fan3.14]

Yeah, this might sound a little strange, but I was wondering, does anyone have any coins with teethmarks on them? You always hear about how people would bite their gold coins to see if they were good or not. Besides being a dentist's nightmare, did this ever leave teethmarks in a coin?

[cladking]

You might not recognize it when you see it.

 

Normally the eye tooth is driven into a flat area of the coin. One bites very lightly but the same each time. 900 gold will deflect about the same each time. Lead will move much more and most other metals much less. It's really easy to mark gold with a tooth.

[cpm9ball]

I recall watching a segment of the History Channel about gold mining, and the idea of biting a coin to determine if it was real gold was just a myth created by the early filmmakers to add drama to their western movies.

 

Chris

[supertooth]

Seems to me that I remember 'someone' putting a coin up on the PCGS chat boards that had teeth marks. Can't remember who or when---just that I do seem to recall it.

 

I'm inclined to agree with cladking's comments. One's canine tooth would be used to "incise" the coin. If the pressure applied was about the same for each bite, the resulting marks in the coin would be different---depending on whatever the metal of the coin. Since gold is a fairly malleable metal, the bite would displace the gold metal about the same for each equally applied pressure from the canine. This mark would be different than one created by a lead or other metal coin using the same amount of pressure.

 

As to the amount of times that anyone might use this technique---I have NO idea. Can speak only that it COULD be done----with NO harm to the canine tooth. If the tooth was a healthy tooth, it would be fully capable of exerting the force required to move the gold metal of a coin. The amount of maxillary biting pressure from the human bite---especially from the canine tooth---is unbelievable. That is my official dental opinion. Bob [supertooth]

[BillJones]

 

The depression marks on this 1796 half dime are teeth marks. They resulted in this coin coming back in a body bag as "damaged." I have had other early coins like this with defects that were actaully worse get graded. So go figure.

[supertooth]

As I jog my memory, I do believe it could have been Bill Jones's coin that I remember. It seems to hit the old memory button in any event. Bob [supertooth]

[Oldtrader3]

There is also legend about dropping coins on the bar surface and listening to the "ring" when the coin hits the wooden surface. I have seen people do this in northern Canada when I was a kid, and was working up there as a diamond driller. This was back when Canadian dollars were 80% silver and a beer cost a dollar.

[physics-fan3.14]

That's exactly what I wanted to see, Bill. Thanks.

[PerryHall]

There is also legend about dropping coins on the bar surface and listening to the "ring" when the coin hits the wooden surface. I have seen people do this in northern Canada when I was a kid, and was working up there as a diamond driller. This was back when Canadian dollars were 80% silver and a beer cost a dollar.

 

The old brass cash registers had a marble ledge so the merchant could drop any suspicious coins on the surface of the marble ledge and listen for a melodious ring if gold or silver or a dull thud if a lead based or pot metal counterfit

[Conder101]

If you really try you CAN inflect toothmarks on a gold and maybe even a silver coin, but you are also quite likely to break your tooth as well if you try too often.

 

What has people confused it that people were not biting the coin to see if it was gold, they were biting to make sure it WASN'T gold plated lead. A very different proposition. If you are biting to see if it is gold (or silver) you must bite very hard and see if it is possible to make a small mark. If you are biting to see if it is plated lead you can bite much more gently and a clear mark will still be left behind.