What informal terms are used in English as money amounts? I know the following US terms and I'm curious about the rest:
a grand: one/a 1,000 dollars or a thousand dollars or one thousand dollars
a buck: one/a dollar
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1When asking for a list of answers, the question should be marked community wiki. I have converted this question.– Robert CartainoCommented Aug 15, 2010 at 16:18
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BTW, anybody interested in money, join us at money.stackexchange.com :-)– Chris W. ReaCommented Aug 15, 2010 at 21:04
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5@Chris: how much money?– deleteCommented Aug 16, 2010 at 1:55
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16 Answers
"Nickel" is the commonly used term in the US for a five cent coin and based on its primary metal content.
"Penny" is commonly used for the one cent coin. This term is borrowed from British English.
"Quarter" is shortened from "quarter dollar".
You'll occasionally hear something like "solid quarter" as in "Do you have a solid quarter?" when someone wants to exchange smaller coins of an equivalent amount.
While a "bit" does equal 12.5 cents, when you hear the term it will most often be used in the phrase "two bits" which refers to a quarter. The word comes from the practice of cutting apart old coins called "Pieces of Eight".
"Dime" is the name that the ten cent coin actually carries. The name comes from the Old French "disme" which comes from the Latin "decimus". It's the only modern US coin I can think of which does not indicate its value. None of them use numerals, unfortunately.
A "bill" is sometimes used for "$100".
"Five spot" and "fiver" refer to a five dollar bill.
Sometimes currency is referred to by the person portrayed on the bill. This is more common with "Benjamin" or "Franklin" ($100), "Grant" ($50) and "Jackson" ($20).
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The phrase "Pieces of eight" was made famous (to me at least) by Long John Silver's parrot in the novel Treasure Island. Commented Nov 1, 2010 at 20:55
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2Don't forget a "C-note" for a hundred-dollar bill, and a "fiver" for a five-whatever note. Commented Nov 2, 2010 at 0:04
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It's all about the Benjamins - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It%27s_All_about_the_Benjamins Commented Jan 8, 2011 at 3:20
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Fiver = £5
Tenner = £10
Pony = £25
Monkey = £500
Also
Bob = 1 shilling (now five new pence)
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Plus Quid=£1 as others have noted; also "grand" can be used for UK pounds (also meaning a thousand) as well as for dollars. There are more slang terms here aldertons.com/money.htm although most of them are very uncommon (I've never heard them used), and some may even be made up.– psmearsCommented Jan 21, 2011 at 14:27
Here are a couple more I've heard around:
- "big ones" ... slang for "thousands". Like "ten big ones" = $10,000
- "mil" or "mill" ... short for "millions". "5 mil" = $5,000,000
And here are a couple for Canada specifically. Not amounts per se, but slang for some of our coinage:
- loonie = the $1 Canadian coin
- twonie or toonie = the $2 Canadian coin
In the US, a “C-note” or “C-spot” refers to US$100.00.
Based on the British television shows that I’ve watched, a “quid” is £1.
Sawbuck - $10
Large - $1000
Bit - 12.5 cents
Short Bit - Dime
Long Bit - 15 cents
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There is slang for a twenty, but I can't remember what it is. Commented Dec 22, 2015 at 22:02
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(And "bit" comes from "pieces of eight" -- a Spanish dollar cut into 8 pie-shaped "bits". The US "quarter" is hence known as "two bits".) Commented Dec 22, 2015 at 22:04
With the growing popularity of Poker, a:
stack of high society
isn't just a "chip of the highest denomination" (usually $10000 in chips) anymore, but also 10000 actual dollars.
In the gambling community, you will find many other term to designate money amount.
Sawbuck, mentioned in JohnFx's answer is one.
But you also have:
- Dollar bet: a $100 bet
- Money: $500
- Nickel: $5 chip
- Quarter: $25 chip
- skin or skoon: one dollar
In casinos, a quarter is $25, a penny is $1, a dollar is $100, etc =).
In USA at least, you can say "kay" to mean thousand, e.g. five kay = 5K = 5000.
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1This works in the UK too :-) (eg "He's earning twenty K" to mean £20,000)– psmearsCommented Jan 21, 2011 at 14:28
"Beer tokens" and "beer vouchers" refer to coins and notes of the realm, respectively. As an aside there was a brief time around the introduction of the £2 coin in the UK when beer could be found for £2, so these were literally beer tokens.
- Megabuck = One million dollars.
- Gigabuck = One billion dollars.
- Terabuck = One trillion dollars (I don't think I've seen this one, but it makes sense).