Did people around the 1900's really go around biting gold coins to check if they are real?

they probably did. however, thanks to something called "fractional reserve banking/fiat money" we don't have to worry about gold coins anymore.

fractional reserve banking is the nearly universal practice of banks loaning out about 10 times the amount of money they have deposited. basically, when the bank loans you money, it's not really money that they have- it's just numbers on a screen. the Federal Reserve uses the same scheme. there is nowhere near enough actual gold to back up the amount of money in circulation.

http://www.lewrockwell.com/rothbard/frb.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fractional-reserve_ba...

http://wfhummel.cnchost.com/bankreserves.html

Biting of coins or gold might have been practiced when the coins were pure gold, but it would never work with authentic US gold coins. The US has always alloyed the gold with copper, and the resulting coin was much sturdier than pure gold would be. In ancient times coins were often cut to make sure they weren't fake, (not solid gold or silver, and maybe that is where the practice started. With machine struck coins, though, all you need to do is verify the outside dimensions of the coin and quickly weigh it to ensure it is gold.

Speaking of cheating, though, there were many people who would get new gold coins and file away portions of the edge and then spend it. Do this enough and you get a lot of "free" gold. That is why there is reeding on the edge to deter this, but people still did it to some extent.

Yes, banks were few and far between and anyway people trusted what they perceived has the TASTE TEST to tell them if the money was real /fake

Yes, if it was malable (printable with teeth) they knew it wasn't counterfeit.