"biting money"

[Douglas G. Wilson]

On 12/1/2011 9:35 AM, Michael Sheehan wrote:
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society<ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Michael Sheehan<wordmall at AOL.COM>
> Subject:      "biting money"
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>
> Having exhausted the meager resources available to me, I turn to this
> august body. I am told that "biting money" is an Upper Peninsula term,
> and that it was often used by U.P. author Cully Gage. Can anyone
> define the term?
--

Sure, I can, tentatively; but I can't guarantee that my definition is
100% accurate or verifiable.

I suppose that "biting money" means (1) coins (originally those which
were of gold or silver with 'intrinsic value') as opposed to paper
money, (2) actual cash in hand (as opposed to credit, or to other forms
of property).

I suppose it means originally "money which one can bite" (supposedly in
the old days one might bite a coin to test it, maybe to distinguish
silver from lead or whatever).

In some cases "biting money" seems to be somewhat redundant, = simply
"money", as one might say "cash money", "cold cash", etc.

Examples:

1937: <<Many millions of dollars of paper money had been issued, backed
by hope. Its value was falling from a rate in February, 1780, of 40
continental paper dollars to one good, hard dollar of biting money
toward the depths that it struck In 1781.>> [dateline Washington DC]

1939 : <<When they sell their franchise rights, "natives" want the
payoff in what they call biting money rather than paper promises.>>
[apparently refers to silver dollars in New Mexico]

1974: <<Alongside the fabric gold pokes on display are early pocket gold
scales the wary carried to test "biting" money on the spot.>> [pioneer
gold exhibition, San Francisco]

I can't find any published explicit definition on brief search.

-- Doug Wilson

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