# Nicknames for monetary denominations and their origins? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 7, 2003, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nicknames-for-monetary-denominations-and-their-origins/153499 "2003-02-07T17:12:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![1000monkeys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/1/7cd45c/32.png) [@1000monkeys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/1000monkeys)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2003, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nicknames-for-monetary-denominations-and-their-origins/153499/1 "2003-02-07T17:12:49Z")
Anybody have any clue how the nicknames arose, if there are any for the ones I missed, and why some stuck better than others? $1 - buck, single, dollar $5 - fin $10 - sawbuck $20 - $50 - $100 - c-note $1000 - grand I personally always liked “fin” and have tried to revive it, but no-one ever knows what I’m talking about. ---
**Author:** ![Casey1505](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dc4da7/32.png) [@Casey1505](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Casey1505)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2003, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nicknames-for-monetary-denominations-and-their-origins/153499/2 "2003-02-07T17:22:02Z")
[here’s a link](http://www.wordorigins.org/thelist.htm) ---
**Author:** ![Casey1505](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dc4da7/32.png) [@Casey1505](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Casey1505)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2003, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nicknames-for-monetary-denominations-and-their-origins/153499/3 "2003-02-07T17:24:51Z")
Sorry, incomplete. A c-note is because the Roman numeral for 100 is C I’ll try to find more. ---
**Author:** ![Casey1505](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dc4da7/32.png) [@Casey1505](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Casey1505)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2003, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nicknames-for-monetary-denominations-and-their-origins/153499/4 "2003-02-07T17:30:44Z")
[fin](http://education.yahoo.com/reference/dictionary/entries/39/f0123900.html) [dollar](http://education.yahoo.com/reference/dictionary/entries/85/d0328500.html) ---
**Author:** ![Jayrot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Jayrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jayrot)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2003, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nicknames-for-monetary-denominations-and-their-origins/153499/5 "2003-02-07T18:01:14Z")
Its very common to call a 20 a “twamp”. Here in SoCal at least. ---
**Author:** ![scout1222](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/34f0e0/32.png) [@scout1222](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scout1222)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2003, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nicknames-for-monetary-denominations-and-their-origins/153499/6 "2003-02-07T18:07:43Z")
**pfbob** , I’m your sister-in-fin. I was just looking through my wallet last night and saw that I had a five. I thought, “ooh, I have a fin!” And then I got confuzzled and couldn’t remember which was which - a fin vs a sawbuck. Now that I’m clear, I’m going to work on using them more often. ---
**Author:** ![Grey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b782af/32.png) [@Grey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grey)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2003, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nicknames-for-monetary-denominations-and-their-origins/153499/7 "2003-02-07T18:30:58Z")
Canadian money $1 coin = Loony (picture of a loon on the front) $2 coin = Two-ny (left as an exercise for the student) ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2003, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nicknames-for-monetary-denominations-and-their-origins/153499/8 "2003-02-07T18:59:37Z")
A $20 is a double sawbuck. Scroll down this page to “a double”. [http://www.pseudodictionary.com/search.php?letter=a](http://www.pseudodictionary.com/search.php?letter=a) And today $100s are called Franklins. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2003, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nicknames-for-monetary-denominations-and-their-origins/153499/9 "2003-02-07T19:01:25Z")
Shoot, hit Submit too soon. And today $100s are called Franklins or Benjamins, as in the movie, All About the Benjamins. ---
**Author:** ![1000monkeys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/1/7cd45c/32.png) [@1000monkeys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/1000monkeys)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2003, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nicknames-for-monetary-denominations-and-their-origins/153499/10 "2003-02-07T19:02:31Z")
Thanks everybody. Especially Casey, great link!! ---
**Author:** ![BobT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e8cbc/32.png) [@BobT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobT)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2003, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nicknames-for-monetary-denominations-and-their-origins/153499/11 "2003-02-07T19:02:53Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Jayrot \* > \*\*Its very common to call a 20 a “twamp”. Here in SoCal at least. \*\* Just where in SoCal do people call $20 bills “twamps”? Am I that unhip? ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2003, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nicknames-for-monetary-denominations-and-their-origins/153499/12 "2003-02-07T19:03:49Z")
Not that I ever actually have $100 bills but rather than Franklins I usually hear them called Banjamins. “K” is also slang for $1000 (from the metric kilo-), as is “G” (short for grand). ---
**Author:** ![TGWATY](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b5e925/32.png) [@TGWATY](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TGWATY)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2003, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nicknames-for-monetary-denominations-and-their-origins/153499/13 "2003-02-07T19:09:32Z")
quarter - 1/4 dollar dime - from _decimus_ meaning tenth nickel - It is - or was - partially composed of nickel penny - from Old English word meaning “coin” But why is a quarter “two bits”? ---
**Author:** ![Emilio\_Lizardo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/898d66/32.png) [@Emilio\_Lizardo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Emilio_Lizardo)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2003, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nicknames-for-monetary-denominations-and-their-origins/153499/14 "2003-02-07T19:13:37Z")
Here in the DC area, the $20 bill is also known as a “yuppie food coupon,” since its what you pull from the ATM in order to pay for dinner. ---
**Author:** ![1000monkeys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/1/7cd45c/32.png) [@1000monkeys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/1000monkeys)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2003, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nicknames-for-monetary-denominations-and-their-origins/153499/15 "2003-02-07T19:15:16Z")
TGWATY follow Casey’s ling above, there is an explanation of Two Bits. Pretty cool stuff. ---
**Author:** ![BobT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e8cbc/32.png) [@BobT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobT)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2003, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nicknames-for-monetary-denominations-and-their-origins/153499/16 "2003-02-07T19:23:25Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by TGWATY \* > \*\*quarter - 1/4 dollar > dime - from _decimus_ meaning tenth > nickel - It is - or was - partially composed of nickel > penny - from Old English word meaning “coin” > > But why is a quarter “two bits”? \*\* I believe the Master has spoken on this, but in the old days (before paper money), people would have dollar coins. But few people would have smaller denomination coins. So you would just start cutting up the dollar coin into smaller pieces to make change. And it was relatively simple to cut a coin into eight pieces (aka Pieces of Eight). If you’ve got eight pieces (or bits), two of them would be $0.25 I see that Casey’s link does give a similar reason. ---
**Author:** ![Duke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e8c25b/32.png) [@Duke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duke)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2003, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nicknames-for-monetary-denominations-and-their-origins/153499/17 "2003-02-07T20:23:42Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Emilio Lizardo \* > \*\*Here in the DC area, the $20 bill is also known as a “yuppie food coupon,” since its what you pull from the ATM in order to pay for dinner. \*\* That’s what I heard in SoCal. I’m curious about “twamp,” as well, as I never heard it there. Any such discussion of money nicknames would be incomplete without a few English slang words…now, most of them have been made obsolete by decimalization, but there are still a few good ones: £1 - quid £5 - fiver £10 - tanner (or “tenner”) £500 - monkey £1,000 - grand (or “g,” as in “went down for 50 g’s”) I understand them all except for “monkey,” which I find quite charming. ---
**Author:** ![arachnidlove](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@arachnidlove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/arachnidlove)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2003, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nicknames-for-monetary-denominations-and-their-origins/153499/18 "2003-02-07T22:58:52Z")
Northern California here. Just wanted to say I’ve heard of “twamp” but I always thought it was spelled “twomp”. I usually hear it when its used to buy drugs, or when my boyfriend is being stupid. When he was asked his age last year it was “twomp-deuce” …and I thought a nickel was called a “bee” as in “give me five bees for a quarter”. Alright, I just wanted to put a Simpsons quote in. ---
**Author:** ![Ice\_Wolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/dfb087/32.png) [@Ice\_Wolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ice_Wolf)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2003, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nicknames-for-monetary-denominations-and-their-origins/153499/19 "2003-02-07T23:22:51Z")
“Monkey” for £500 seems to have originated around 1832, according to [this site](http://www.quinion.com/words/articles/money.htm) (more info on British slang terms for currency there). [One theory:](http://www.bdb.co.za/shackle/articles/moolah.htm) > [@](#): > > Another source claims the term monkey came from soldiers returning from India, where the 500 rupee note had a picture of a monkey on it. They used the term monkey for 500 rupees and on returning to England the saying was converted for sterling to mean £500. ---
**Author:** ![MC\_Master\_of\_Ceremonies](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/bb73d2/32.png) [@MC\_Master\_of\_Ceremonies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MC_Master_of_Ceremonies)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2003, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nicknames-for-monetary-denominations-and-their-origins/153499/20 "2003-02-07T23:29:40Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Duke \* > \*\*That’s what I heard in SoCal. I’m curious about “twamp,” as well, as I never heard it there. > > Any such discussion of money nicknames would be incomplete without a few English slang words…now, most of them have been made obsolete by decimalization, but there are still a few good ones: > > ?1 - quid > ?5 - fiver > ?10 - tanner (or “tenner”) > ?500 - monkey > ?1,000 - grand (or “g,” as in “went down for 50 g’s”) > > I understand them all except for “monkey,” which I find quite charming. \*\* you forgot : 5p (I think, 1 shilling anyway) - bob £100 - ton £5 - sky diver/ Lady Godiva £20 - score/ apple core/ Bobby Moore £1 - squid/nicker £ 25 - pony/macaroni 1p - penny/ Abergavanny £10 - Ayrton Senna 50p - cows calf (Quite afew of these are cockney rhyming slang) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nicknames-for-monetary-denominations-and-their-origins/153499.md?page=2)