Those who have watched historical films are likely familiar with the practice of placing gold directly in the mouth and biting it to test its authenticity. This has often puzzled people outside this tradition.
Ancient people had stronger teeth, which allowed them to distinguish gold. But is this true or false? In reality, the reasoning behind this practice is quite clever.
Biting directly into gold has been common for its high convenience. (Illustrative image).
According to ancient wisdom, there are about four ways to determine gold, the most common of which is biting it directly, due to the underdevelopment of craftsmanship in ancient times.
To create more unique gold jewelry, ancient artisans developed a process of “refining” to reduce the hardness of gold and increase its malleability. As a result, tooth marks can be seen immediately when you bite into it. If there are no tooth marks, it indicates impurities are present, and if the gold is not pure enough, like brass, it cannot be bitten. This crude testing method has been around for a long time due to its high convenience.
The second method is using fire. When ancient people could not distinguish real from fake gold by sight, they used fire to observe the color change of gold, which does not react with oxygen at high temperatures.
The third method is weighing: As we know, gold has a relatively high density, and someone experienced can determine whether the gold in hand is real or fake just by wearing it and weighing it.
The final method is observing color. As people often say, gold is “seven green, eight gold, nine purple, and ten red”, meaning the purity of green-yellow gold is about 70%, the purity of yellow gold is about 80%, the purity of purple gold is 90%, and the purity of red gold is nearly 100%.
