Monetary Slang

[fatwoul]

...We have the wonders offlorins, guineas, crowns, nickers, farthings, quid, thrupence, ha'penny, bob, etc. to name but a few!

There are some post-decimalisation slang words that are still fun.

Once, I only put a pony on a horse and I won a monkey.

American money is very confusing for Aussie tourists, with the notes being all the same colour...

Not just the same colour, but the same size. One of the reasons UK banknotes are different sizes is that it helps the visually impaired identify which notes are which.

I like Australian money though. It's so colourful and it has crazy animals on it.

 

[Benny Holiday]

Hey Fatwoul, that's not very nice, calling our pioneers 'crazy animals.' lol lol lol

It's actually the coins that have the native animals on them! lol The notes feature historical and pioneering figures, like poets and journalists Mary Gilmour and A B 'Banjo' Paterson on the $10 note, Colonial businesswoman and philanthropist Mary Reibey and aviator and founder of the world's first air ambulance service John Flynn on the $20 note, and so on.

Now if they put the faces of the cats in Parliament here on the notes, then we'd be talking crazy animals! lol

 

[The Wolf]

Chiming in late but I find "Dead presidents" amusing yet inaccurate. Hamilton, Franklin, Chase, and others not having been president.

Sincerely,
the Wolf

 

[Baron Kurtz]

I just sprinkle leftover Euros with dollars for tips...

Ah.

Well, your bartenders/waiters/waitresses could probably use them when they go back home (unless they're down-under types).

bk

 

[LizzieMaine]

I'm on a campaign to bring back "spondulicks." And "pelf."

 

[Haversack]

It goes the other way around too. "California Banknotes" was the name given to dried cattle hides back in the early 19th C. Prior to the Gold Rush, California's main export was hides from all the Ranchos. Their main trading partner was the shoe industry of New England. The trade was illegal too because it was not done via Spanish or later Mexican bottoms. New England ship captains would sneak into dog harbours along the coast and trade for hides with all the ranchos and missions in the area. Many of these captains married into the Californio families and produced some interesting hybrids. The Monterey style of Architecture for example. But I'm rambling here...

Anyway, in those days, cattle were open range and their hides were the only part of their value. It was accepted practice for a traveler having to rough it to slaughter a beast for whatever meat was necessary as long as they left the hide up to dry where it could be collected.

Haversack.