How much is a 'Monkey'?

Factual Questions
1

In London slang there are many terms for different amounts of cash, a Monkey being one term, a Pony being another of those terms. Please would anyone in the know give a list of these terms and the values they represent. Also would non-Londoners give their own regional cash amount slang terms.

2

Money Slang.

A monkey is £500.

3

Monkey - £500

Pony - £25

4

I don’t understand the rhyming slang names. Can someone explain that to me?

5

I don’t think they’re rhyming slang, IIRC the words orginate from the London Stock Exchange.

6

I presume Kalhoun is talking about the rhyming slang examples in Q.E.D.'s link, not suggesting that monkey and pony are rhyming slang.

Kalhoun: I can’t explain why rhyming slang exists, but it is a feature of some expressions used in London, Australia and certain other places. The way it works is that you take the word you want a slang term for, invent or choose a memorable phrase that rhymes with it and then use the part of the phrase that doesn’t rhyme. In that way the meaning of the expression is disguised and is only recognisable to an insider.

So, somebody might ask you for a “lady” and you would realise they meant a five pound note because “lady” is short for Lady Godiva, which rhymes with fiver. I suspect that many of the ones you see on slang websites are never used in reality.

“Pony” and “monkey” have already been discussed on these boards before, and the explanation supplied was that those animals featured on 25 and 500 rupee banknotes used in India under the British Raj, so soldiers serving in India brought the nicknames home with them to England.

7

Thanks, Everton. Very interesting. I hope I have someone with me who knows UK money if I ever go for a visit. I’m the sucker they’ve been waiting for!

8

Thanks for the link, great info. Do other countries have as broad (daft?) a list of money terms?

9

HIJACK!!!

Hey Everton, this has always bugged me:

The Brit slang term " bottle ".

I know what it means, but where the hell does it come from?

10

Further to waht everton said, IIRC rhyming slang orginated as a sort of crypto-language for London’s criminal fraternity before coming into common language.

11

I don’t know, but from a page above Q.E.D.'s link, we find this:

12

Dammit. I thought this was going to be about the price of purchasing a monkey.
Mmmmmm… monkeys…

13

If you lost a lot of money at the greyhound track one could say ‘I took half a bag with me and wound up spanking my monkey at the dogs’…

14

If you lost a lot of money at the greyhound track one could say ‘I took half a bag with me and wound up spanking my monkey at the dogs’…sounds nice eh?