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Legend has it that students in the Dutch university town of Leiden used to throw coins in the street for the less well-off citizens. Picking up the coins, these risked burning the r fingers: the students had heated the coins in a skillet. This story is to ldasemblematic for the social and cultural differences dividing labourers and students, or, moregenerally,'town and gown'. Opinions differ about the veracity of the story and the time period during which this prank was perpetrated. Our study of this local legend is based on local newspapers and other digitized sources that have recently become available, allowing us to trace the story over a time period th at spans the years 1841-2016. The hot coins prank is related to a more benign, inte rnationally know n custom during which both throwers and throwees know what to expect. In the Netherlands, stories about the prank have become associated in p a rticular with the town of Leiden, becoming m ore promnent during the twentieth century, after the prank itself was no longer perform ed. We read the hot coin legend in the context of collective m em ory and urban identity: over the course of tw o centuries, various social groups have used th e story as aoundary m arker betw een in -group and out-group , and m ore broadly as a means to reflect on the shifting identity of the town . During the years of urban renewal in th e second half of the twentieth century, Leiden transform ed fro m an old, poor, industrial to w n in to a m odern, affluent urban centre that to u ts itself as a 'city of know ledge'. Rhetorically, the hot coin legend is presented as a test case for social cohesion: did Leiden truly leave behind its divided history? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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