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What informal English terms are used in the US as money amounts? I know the following US terms and I'm curious about others:

a grand: 1000 dollars
a buck: 1 dollar

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  • 1
    When asking for a list of answers, the question should be marked community wiki. I have converted this question. – Robert Cartaino Aug 15 '10 at 16:18
  • BTW, anybody interested in money, join us at money.stackexchange.com :-) – Chris W. Rea Aug 15 '10 at 21:04
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    @Chris: how much money? – delete Aug 16 '10 at 1:55

16 Answers 16

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"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. – Jared Updike Nov 1 '10 at 20:55
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    Don't forget a "C-note" for a hundred-dollar bill, and a "fiver" for a five-whatever note. – Jon Purdy Nov 2 '10 at 0:04
  • It's all about the Benjamins - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It%27s_All_about_the_Benjamins – Scott Mitchell Jan 8 '11 at 3:20
  • I've heard the solid quarter called a case quarter as well. – Davo Jun 22 '17 at 11:19
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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. – psmears Jan 21 '11 at 14:27
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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
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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.

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4

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
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4

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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  • This works in the UK too :-) (eg "He's earning twenty K" to mean £20,000) – psmears Jan 21 '11 at 14:28
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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. – Hot Licks Dec 22 '15 at 22:02
  • (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".) – Hot Licks Dec 22 '15 at 22:04
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There's the tanner (6d, 2.5p).

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2

Yuppie Food Stamp = $20 (spewed from ATMs at lunch time)

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Tonne = Hundred

At least in Ireland!

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Quid

British slang for £1

Example:

That costed me 12 quid.

(12 pounds)

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1

Hunid Stacks - many hundred dollar bills

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1

25 cents = two bits,

20 dollars = green ticket

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1

"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.

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0
  • 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).
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0

U.S. fin for $5 bill (probably from the Pennsylvania Dutch word for five).

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