# Can the word "bond" be used to mean cash or money? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 8, 2015, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-the-word-bond-be-used-to-mean-cash-or-money/719549 "2015-05-08T12:51:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Hermitian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hermitian/32/470_2.png) [@Hermitian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hermitian)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2015, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-the-word-bond-be-used-to-mean-cash-or-money/719549/1 "2015-05-08T12:51:30Z")
I was reading this news story of a polite bank robber. He walked into a bank and gave the teller a note saying: “I need 150,000 bonds right NOW!! Please. Police take 3 to 4 minutes to get here. I would appreciate if you ring the alarm a minute after I am gone…make sure the money doesn’t BLOW UP ON MY WAY OUT.” Apparently he ends the note with a smiley face. The only financial “bond” I am familiar with is something like (from [dictionary.com](http://dictionary.com/)): _“a certificate of ownership of a specified portion of a debt due to be paid by a government or corporation to an individual holder and usually bearing a fixed rate of interest”_ I don’t think the bank robber really want bonds. He wants cash. Is “bond” a slang word for cash that I was unaware of? ---
**Author:** ![Hermitian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hermitian/32/470_2.png) [@Hermitian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hermitian)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2015, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-the-word-bond-be-used-to-mean-cash-or-money/719549/2 "2015-05-08T12:57:22Z")
I forgot the link to the news story. It is [here](http://www.foxnews.com/us/2015/05/07/accused-bank-robber-reportedly-says-innocent-because-didnt-demand-money/?intcmp=latestnews). ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2015, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-the-word-bond-be-used-to-mean-cash-or-money/719549/3 "2015-05-08T13:11:28Z")
I was wondering the same thing, but it looks like he wrote [‘bands’](http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/gma/us.abcnews.gma.com/ht_dominyck_alfonseca_note_jc_150507_16x9_992.jpg). Compare the vowel in ‘bands’ to the ones in ‘to’ and ‘gone’. (I first read it as ‘bonds’.) ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2015, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-the-word-bond-be-used-to-mean-cash-or-money/719549/4 "2015-05-08T13:12:40Z")
Is it some folk memory of “bearer bonds” (much easier to carry than large quantities of cash, but if they still exist would probably provoke instant suspicion of money-laundering)? It doesn’t sound as though he’s quite the full shilling, so he could easily get a detail like that wrong. > **[Bearer bond](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bearer_bond)** > > A bearer bond or bearer note is a bond or debt security issued by a business entity such as a corporation or a government. As a bearer instrument, it differs from the more common types of investment securities in that it is unregistered—no records are kept of the owner, or the transactions involving ownership. Whoever physically holds the paper on which the bond is issued is the presumptive owner of the instrument. This is useful for investors who wish to remain anonymous. > Recovery of the value... ---
**Author:** ![Cato\_Younger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Cato\_Younger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cato_Younger)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2015, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-the-word-bond-be-used-to-mean-cash-or-money/719549/5 "2015-05-08T13:16:12Z")
I read about this! I believe he worded the “Robbery” note in such a weird way as to tip-toe around him specifically saying that he is robbing the bank. According to his logic, if he wrote the note in a non-threatening manner, he couldn’t be charged with robbery because ‘he’s only asking for money’. As per your question: the only reference I know with bonds in regards to cash are “bearer bonds”. From my understanding the US does not issue “bear bonds” anymore. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bearer\_bond](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bearer_bond) They are commonly used as a McGuffin in heist movies because if you physically held the bonds you were the rightful owner. Making them untraceable, an asset for thieves. Maybe your robber saw too many Hollywood films? ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2015, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-the-word-bond-be-used-to-mean-cash-or-money/719549/6 "2015-05-08T13:21:04Z")
> [@Cato\_Younger](#): > > According to his logic, if he wrote the note in a non-threatening manner, he couldn’t be charged with robbery because ‘he’s only asking for money’. ‘Bonds? I asked for 150,000 _bands!_ I like music, right? And the teller didn’t give me bands. She gave me cash! Not my fault. I didn’t ask for money.’ ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2015, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-the-word-bond-be-used-to-mean-cash-or-money/719549/7 "2015-05-08T13:45:11Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > ‘Bonds? I asked for 150,000 _bands!_ I like music, right? And the teller didn’t give me bands. She gave me cash! Not my fault. I didn’t ask for money.’ ‘Bonds? I asked for 150,000 _bands!_ I have a paper route and ran out of elastic bands to wrap the papers for delivery! And the teller didn’t give me bands. She gave me cash! Not my fault. I didn’t ask for money.’ TBH, I wouldn’t be hold up the usage and grammar of a failed bank robber as any kind of positive example. No, “bonds” never meant “unit of currency”. Even in the financial context, it means “promise to repay”, as in “I give you money, you give me a bond, when the bond matures, you give me back my money plus interest.” ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2015, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-the-word-bond-be-used-to-mean-cash-or-money/719549/8 "2015-05-08T14:01:28Z")
But what is a “gub”?😉 ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2015, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-the-word-bond-be-used-to-mean-cash-or-money/719549/9 "2015-05-08T15:40:11Z")
Also a promise of human flesh, a pound, maybe, as discussed in a current thread. 41 times used in Merchant of Venice. ---
**Author:** ![tapu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/49beb7/32.png) [@tapu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tapu)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2015, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-the-word-bond-be-used-to-mean-cash-or-money/719549/10 "2015-05-08T15:55:38Z")
Maybe he meant the bands around the counted money. In a bank, you could say you wanted 150,000 in bands, meaning bundled like that. Stre-t-c-h-ing… ---
**Author:** ![Folly](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/folly/32/3219_2.png) [@Folly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Folly)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2015, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-the-word-bond-be-used-to-mean-cash-or-money/719549/11 "2015-05-08T15:59:15Z")
He looks so happy in his booking photo. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2015, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-the-word-bond-be-used-to-mean-cash-or-money/719549/12 "2015-05-08T18:06:18Z")
> [@Cato\_Younger](#): > > According to his logic, if he wrote the note in a non-threatening manner, he couldn’t be charged with robbery because ‘he’s only asking for money’. This was the guy, wasn’t he, who did in fact argue that the only “requested” the money, and the bank teller had graciously magnanimously “given” it to him as a gift? Uh, yeah, sure. Let the judge and jury think about that one. I also read it as “bands”, and the mental picture I got was rubber-banded bundles of money. I suppose the kind-hearted teller could have given him a stack of U. S. Savings Bonds. Or maybe some recycled Michael Milken junk bonds that are, or will soon be, worthless anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2015, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-the-word-bond-be-used-to-mean-cash-or-money/719549/13 "2015-05-08T18:21:01Z")
> [@gnoitall](#): > > TBH, I wouldn’t be hold up the usage and grammar of a failed bank robber as any kind of positive example. Neither should one hold up the tactics of a failed bank robber as being a lesson to be emulated. The dude also posted a pic of his note to Instagram for all the world to see. How clever was _that?_ His claim that the note was not a robbery note, aside from being lame _per se,_ is also contradicted by the text itself. He writes, “I NEED . . .” and also gives [del]instructions[/del] _a polite request_ regarding how the police should be called. Why does he think the police might be called? :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2015, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-the-word-bond-be-used-to-mean-cash-or-money/719549/14 "2015-05-08T21:36:35Z")
I’m guessing that the worst sentence a judge could pronounce would be that he should not go to prison and have his life organised for him, but be put to work in the real world and be taught to sort himself out. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2015, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-the-word-bond-be-used-to-mean-cash-or-money/719549/15 "2015-05-09T03:35:57Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > But what is a “gub”?😉 🙂 Beat me to it! ---
**Author:** ![Schnitte](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/schnitte/32/9033_2.png) [@Schnitte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Schnitte)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2015, 9:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-the-word-bond-be-used-to-mean-cash-or-money/719549/16 "2015-05-09T09:39:15Z")
> [@gnoitall](#): > > No, “bonds” never meant “unit of currency”. Even in the financial context, it means “promise to repay”, as in “I give you money, you give me a bond, when the bond matures, you give me back my money plus interest.” In the earlier days of paper currency, when banknotes were still supposed to be backed by precious metal and the bearer could exchange them for metal, the difference between banknotes and bonds was not as clear; banknotes were, at the time, often understood to be IOUs representing the physical metal, which was considered the “real money”, and because of that, banknotes sometimes even carried interest, which did not prevent them from being used as cash in everyday transactions. An example would be [this](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confederate_States_of_America_dollar#/media/File:CSA-T6-$50-1861.jpg) (jpeg file from Wikipedia) CSA banknote of $50, carrying an interest of half a cent per day (about 3.6 % per year). Of course, that promise was, for obvious reasons, never fulfilled, but it was not uncommon in the early days to think of banknotes as bonds rather than cash, even though they could be used like that. ---
**Author:** ![ALOHA\_HATER](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/76d3ee/32.png) [@ALOHA\_HATER](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ALOHA_HATER)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2015, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-the-word-bond-be-used-to-mean-cash-or-money/719549/17 "2015-05-10T20:56:02Z")
> [@tapu](#): > > Maybe he meant the bands around the counted money. In a bank, you could say you wanted 150,000 in bands, meaning bundled like that. > > Stre-t-c-h-ing… That’s not such a big stretch. Bankers use labeled paper currency straps of different colors to make it easier to deal with large amounts of cash. A “hundred strap” (blue) is a bundle of 100 ones, for example. Rubber bands are also common for internal use, though you can’t ship them out to the Fed that way. The robber may have heard reference to a “five thousand strap” or somesuch and extrapolated. ---
**Author:** ![grude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47774/32.png) [@grude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grude)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2015, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-the-word-bond-be-used-to-mean-cash-or-money/719549/18 "2015-05-10T21:53:03Z")
Not remotely related to the case you are asking about, but yes I have run across the words bond used to mean a cash bond. ---
**Author:** ![Flyer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/flyer/32/7298_2.png) [@Flyer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flyer)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2015, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-the-word-bond-be-used-to-mean-cash-or-money/719549/19 "2015-05-11T03:55:31Z")
"Dear Sir or Madam: I am concerned that your bank may be overloaded with cash. Since a building collapse would be unfortunate, I am prepared to take the excess off your hands for the good of the neighborhood. Please transfer it to my possession at your earliest convenience." ---
**Author:** ![Jesta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Jesta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jesta)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2015, 8:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-the-word-bond-be-used-to-mean-cash-or-money/719549/20 "2015-05-11T08:33:31Z")
There’s a few stories that refer to this as “bands” not bonds, and after reading the note, I’d agree that that’s what it says. > **[Bank robber busted by posting videos & pics on Instagram](https://www.rt.com/usa/256305-virginia-bank-robber-instagram/)** > > A Virginia Beach man was arrested by local police less than an hour after he allegedly robbed a bank and posted evidence of the incident on Instagram. However, the man insists that what happened was not actually a robbery. > **[Alleged Bank Robber Dominyk Antonio Alfonseca Denies Crime Because He Asked...](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/alleged-bank-robber-dominyk-antonio-alfonseca-denies-crime-because-he-n355416)** > > An alleged Virginia bank robber said he denies the crime he's accused of — because he asked a bank teller for money "politely." > **[WPMT FOX43](https://www.facebook.com/fox43news/posts/10153317480963331)** > > “I Need $150,000 Bands Right Now!! Please Police take 3 to 4 minutes to get here, I would appreciate if you Ring the alarm a minute after I am gone… make sure the money doesn’t blow up on my way out.... and an image search of “cash bands” will give plenty of examples of what he would have been referring to. I guess he forgot a bag? and/or just wanted it to be easy to carry out and around. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-the-word-bond-be-used-to-mean-cash-or-money/719549.md?page=2)