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Ever bite down on a gold coin to make sure that it is real?

CoinstartledCoinstartled Posts: 10,135 ✭✭✭✭✭

Does the 10% copper alloy mess it up?

Comments

  • CoinstartledCoinstartled Posts: 10,135 ✭✭✭✭✭

    A picture of US gymnasts biting their (non solid) gold medals got me to thinking...

  • BillDugan1959BillDugan1959 Posts: 3,821 ✭✭✭✭✭

    I am not Underdog and I never met Polly Purebred!

  • BillDugan1959BillDugan1959 Posts: 3,821 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Well, maybe I met Polly Purebred, but she wasn't interested in a mutt like me!

  • coinkatcoinkat Posts: 23,070 ✭✭✭✭✭

    I suspect my dental insurer would not appreciate my numismatic endeavors especially if other viable options that make more sense are followed first.

    Experience the World through Numismatics...it's more than you can imagine.

  • Type2Type2 Posts: 13,985 ✭✭✭✭✭

    No.



    Hoard the keys.
  • StoogeStooge Posts: 4,665 ✭✭✭✭✭

    The better question to this is "Does anyone here have a gold coin with teeth marks in it"?


    Later, Paul.
  • CameonutCameonut Posts: 7,291 ✭✭✭✭✭

    No, my teeth are too fragile and important to me to chew on metal.

    Ever paid for a crown or chip restoration on a front tooth? Costs more than the gold you are munching on.

    “In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock." - Thomas Jefferson

    My digital cameo album 1950-64 Cameos - take a look!

  • jwittenjwitten Posts: 5,119 ✭✭✭✭✭

    No, but I have bought many $1 gold coins that have little marks like that

  • logger7logger7 Posts: 8,507 ✭✭✭✭✭

    No, popcorn is bad enough, caused my last tooth damage.

  • MrEurekaMrEureka Posts: 24,241 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Once, while visiting the Smithsonian. Right by Star 1. It's real.

    Andy Lustig

    Doggedly collecting coins of the Central American Republic.

    Visit the Society of US Pattern Collectors at USPatterns.com.
  • PerryHallPerryHall Posts: 46,089 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited November 19, 2017 3:37PM

    Authentic classic US gold coins are alloyed with 10% copper which makes them fairly hard while the contemporary circulating counterfeits were made with lead that is plated with a thin layer of gold and is thus fairly soft. If you can leave teeth marks in a gold coin it's probably not real.

    Worry is the interest you pay on a debt you may not owe.
    "Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value---zero."----Voltaire
    "Everything you say should be true, but not everything true should be said."----Voltaire

  • CoinstartledCoinstartled Posts: 10,135 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @PerryHall said:
    If you can leave teeth marks in a gold coin it's probably not real.

    The teeth or the coin?

    ;)

  • JimnightJimnight Posts: 10,846 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Can't say that I have.

  • amwldcoinamwldcoin Posts: 11,269 ✭✭✭✭✭

    When I was a teenager I traded a friend a fractional California gold piece for a few Morgan Dollars. The 1st thing he did was take it out of the holder and bite that sucker! He bent the crap outta that sucker!

  • jwittenjwitten Posts: 5,119 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @PerryHall said:
    Authentic classic US gold coins are alloyed with 10% copper which makes them fairly hard while the contemporary circulating counterfeits were made with lead that is plated with a thin layer of gold and is thus fairly soft. If you can leave teeth marks in a gold coin it's probably not real.

    Why do so many of the old $1 gold coins have teeth marks then?

  • BillDugan1959BillDugan1959 Posts: 3,821 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited November 19, 2017 6:53PM

    Quite a few $1 gold once resided in jewelry. The marks are probably from that.

    I will say it again, most living Americans probably saw Underdog biting a coin, or Americans of a certain age may remember Scrooge McDuck doing the same. Cartoons. Probably less than 1% of living Americans can remember gold coins in daily exchange.

  • jwittenjwitten Posts: 5,119 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @BillDugan1959 said:
    Quite a few $1 gold once resided in jewelry. The marks are probably from that.

    I will say it again, most living Americans probably saw Underdog biting a coin, or Americans of a certain age may remember Scrooge McDuck doing the same. Cartoons. Probably less than 1% of living Americans can remember gold coins in daily exchange.

    From what I've seen, jewelry marks are usually more of a scratch, etc. The $1 coins are pretty darn thin, and quite a few have a good dent in them, not scratches, etc.

  • OverdateOverdate Posts: 7,007 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @BillDugan1959 said:
    Probably less than 1% of living Americans can remember gold coins in daily exchange.

    What are you talking about, I just spent a Sac yesterday!

    My Adolph A. Weinman signature :)

  • BillDugan1959BillDugan1959 Posts: 3,821 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @jwitten said:

    @BillDugan1959 said:
    Quite a few $1 gold once resided in jewelry. The marks are probably from that.

    I will say it again, most living Americans probably saw Underdog biting a coin, or Americans of a certain age may remember Scrooge McDuck doing the same. Cartoons. Probably less than 1% of living Americans can remember gold coins in daily exchange.

    From what I've seen, jewelry marks are usually more of a scratch, etc. The $1 coins are pretty darn thin, and quite a few have a good dent in them, not scratches, etc.

    The scratched stuff is just that, scratches.

    Saved because of the triumph of endless hope over realism.

    Those were the lesser damaged coins - that still got saved when gold went sky-high in 1979-1980 and later in 2010 and 2011. The soldered stuff, the stuff with loops removed, the bent stuff, it mostly went to the pot.

    If you put a $1 gold in your mouth, you'd likely swallow it and be looking at your skat for the next several days.

  • jwittenjwitten Posts: 5,119 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited November 19, 2017 7:26PM

    Next time I get a bent one, I might just try it, though I must admit, I have a thing about metal touching my teeth, haha. Gives me goosebumps when someone touches a fork to their teeth.

  • BillDugan1959BillDugan1959 Posts: 3,821 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited November 19, 2017 7:30PM

    Any damaged European gold ducat would be easier to try this on. About the same thickness (or thinness) but the larger diameter might be easier to hit with the choppers.

  • CoinstartledCoinstartled Posts: 10,135 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @jwitten said:
    Next time I get a bent one, I might just try it, though I must admit, I have a thing about metal touching my teeth, haha. Gives me goosebumps when someone touches a fork to their teeth.

    I am not responsible for the dental bill!

  • Timbuk3Timbuk3 Posts: 11,658 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Nope !!! :s

    Timbuk3
  • WalkerfanWalkerfan Posts: 9,288 ✭✭✭✭✭

    No, not good for the coins or your teeth!

    Sometimes, it’s better to be LUCKY than good. 🍀 🍺👍

    My Full Walker Registry Set (1916-1947):

    https://www.ngccoin.com/registry/competitive-sets/16292/

  • PerryHallPerryHall Posts: 46,089 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @jwitten said:

    @PerryHall said:
    Authentic classic US gold coins are alloyed with 10% copper which makes them fairly hard while the contemporary circulating counterfeits were made with lead that is plated with a thin layer of gold and is thus fairly soft. If you can leave teeth marks in a gold coin it's probably not real.

    Why do so many of the old $1 gold coins have teeth marks then?

    The dollar gold coins were struck on very thin planchets so it would be very easy to damage one by biting it.

    Worry is the interest you pay on a debt you may not owe.
    "Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value---zero."----Voltaire
    "Everything you say should be true, but not everything true should be said."----Voltaire

  • CoinstartledCoinstartled Posts: 10,135 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Too bad that Coindexter is not still around. He would give it a shot.

  • TreashuntTreashunt Posts: 6,747 ✭✭✭✭✭

    NO!

    Frank

    BHNC #203

  • rickoricko Posts: 98,724 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @MrEureka .... I do not see any marks on the reverse, which I would expect if those were teeth marks... am I missing them?? Cheers, RickO

  • CoinstartledCoinstartled Posts: 10,135 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Maybe Carr can make a fantasy piece with the marks in it.

  • topstuftopstuf Posts: 14,803 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @ricko said:
    @MrEureka .... I do not see any marks on the reverse, which I would expect if those were teeth marks... am I missing them?? Cheers, RickO

    You're missing TEETH? :o

  • topstuftopstuf Posts: 14,803 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Hey! Maybe we've found the origin of ......... BITcoin !!!! :)

    Dibs on royalties.

  • rickoricko Posts: 98,724 ✭✭✭✭✭

    No... actually have all my teeth... :D;) And since I do, I would expect two things about the pictured coin.... One... no one with no lower teeth would bite down on a gold coin... and Two, if such a bite occurred, there would be marks on the reverse as well. I should have been more specific. Cheers, RickO

  • topstuftopstuf Posts: 14,803 ✭✭✭✭✭

    What if they bit it on a cracker? :|

  • KellenCoinKellenCoin Posts: 1,206 ✭✭✭✭

    Never.

    CCAC Representative of the General Public
    Columnist for The Numismatist
    2021 Young Numismatist of the Year

  • rickoricko Posts: 98,724 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @MrEureka ...... :D:D Excellent point...... Cheers, RickO

  • ElcontadorElcontador Posts: 7,522 ✭✭✭✭✭

    The last time I I was or heard of anything like this was an ancient Amos and Andy show when either Kingfish or Lightning ran a parking lot and bit the quarters people gave them to make sure they weren't fake.

    "Vou invadir o Nordeste,
    "Seu cabra da peste,
    "Sou Mangueira......."
  • ashelandasheland Posts: 23,177 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Actually I have, but not coins. Bars, jewellery, etc. It does work. :D

  • BloodManBloodMan Posts: 1,833 ✭✭✭✭✭

    This 1875-S double eagle has marks that might be from tooth imprints. On the reverse, below the “T” in Twenty there is a pair of marks near the rim. The space between the marks could be the gap between the teeth???
    Similar marks are in other locations on the reverse, but always near the rim. Otherwise this is fabulous example for an MS62.



  • BuffaloIronTailBuffaloIronTail Posts: 7,479 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @MrEureka said:

    @ricko said:
    @MrEureka .... I do not see any marks on the reverse, which I would expect if those were teeth marks... am I missing them?? Cheers, RickO

    Good observation, but you shouldn’t assume that I only had one coin in my mouth.

    Now THAT is one great reply........................

    Pete

    "I tell them there's no problems.....only solutions" - John Lennon
  • WeissWeiss Posts: 9,941 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Well, in a way. I have 4 gold crowns. Each weighs between 5 .5 and 6.5 grams:
    The last one had the following alloy:
    Au 55.0
    Pd 5.2
    Ag 30.0
    Cu 9.0
    In < 1.0
    Ir < 1.0

    We are like children who look at print and see a serpent in the last letter but one, and a sword in the last.
    --Severian the Lame
  • BillDugan1959BillDugan1959 Posts: 3,821 ✭✭✭✭✭

    In my Dad's estate, four years ago, there was an extracted tooth with a gold filling. I got $81 for it (split with my sibs).

    Earlier, my sister had a gold tooth from somewhere, I got $61 for that (given to her).

    Dental gold is not a joke if you know the right buyer!

  • WillieBoyd2WillieBoyd2 Posts: 5,127 ✭✭✭✭✭

    It looks like the 1875-S $20 has an engraved signature on the obverse in front of the chin.

    Any explanation?

    :)

    https://www.brianrxm.com
    The Mysterious Egyptian Magic Coin
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  • topstuftopstuf Posts: 14,803 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Will acetone remove spit?

  • BloodManBloodMan Posts: 1,833 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @WillieBoyd2
    Interesting observation. A close-up image of this region is below.
    I can’t say with any confidence whether it is graffiti or random marks. I don’t own the coin to inspect it. I will say that it sold at auction at least twice in the past 10 years and both times for a substantial premium.

  • jwittenjwitten Posts: 5,119 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @WillieBoyd2 said:
    It looks like the 1875-S $20 has an engraved signature on the obverse in front of the chin.

    Any explanation?

    :)

    Just appears to be random marks to me

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