Thomas Jefferson
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Forms: form: Thomas Jeffersons
Etymology: Metonym from the portrait of Thomas Jefferson featured on them.
Senses: examples: text: I was able to get it out of the clerk that this Franks guy—he’s supposed to be a legit writer who’s on the road a lot—but after I greased her palm with a few Thomas Jeffersons she tells me he don’t ever pick up his mail there.
ref: 1987 May, James N. Frey, chapter 9, in USSA: A Novel, New York, N.Y.: Zebra Books, →ISBN, page 134:
text: Well, I just tipped mine two dollars a day for three days, in nice, crisp Thomas Jeffersons.
ref: 2000 January 31, Doug Wickstrom, “Tipping the maids”, in rec.arts.sf.fandom (Usenet), archived from the original on 22 Jun 2025:
text: I'll wager a Thomas Jefferson that there will be a 5euro coin on the Continent before there is an 18cent coin in fly-over-country.
ref: 2003 October 19, Kenneth Sloan, “Change for a five”, in rec.games.chess.politics (Usenet), archived from the original on 22 Jun 2025:
text: “I’ve never said this before,” I started off with a chuckle, handing him the bill, “but here’s a Thomas Jefferson for your troubles.” […] “I gave him a Thomas Jefferson,” I reminded her with a laugh, only to admit, “Until today, I had no idea Thomas Jefferson was on the two.” I chuckled again and complained, “I wish we still had the two dollar bill in our time—they’re so handy.”
ref: 2022 April 18, Douglas J. McGregor, “Part Five: 1941”, in Roadtrip 41, Bloomington, Ind.: iUniverse, →ISBN, section 2:
synonyms: Jefferson
Tom
glosses: A United States two-dollar bill featuring Thomas Jefferson.
examples: text: After I first saw the old man I kept watching for those buffalo nickels, but they’re all Thomas Jeffersons now.
ref: 1993 June, Hortense Calisher, “Blind Eye, Wrong Foot”, in Laura Furman, editor, American Short Fiction, volume 3, number 10, Austin, Tex.: University of Texas Press, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 43:
text: For modern-era citizens now dependent on debit cards and no longer familiar with coin values: Cheez-Its requires one Franklin Roosevelt and two George Washingtons. (Hold onto your Thomas Jeffersons for drinks, later.)
ref: 2012, Doug Brendel, “A Primer for Ye Olde Vending Tradition”, in Only in Ipswich 2013, →ISBN, page 38:
text: If I had a nickel for every time I made the mistake of telling someone I was sick—and they said disbelievingly, “But you look fine!”—I’d be rolling in shiny little Thomas Jeffersons.
ref: 2021, Chloe Liese, “Rooney”, in With You Forever (Bergman Brothers; 4), London: Penguin Books, published 2023, →ISBN:
glosses: A United States nickel (five-cent coin) featuring Thomas Jefferson.
examples: text: They stopped minting the Washington dollar coins as soon as they starting minting John Adams coins. Similarly, the John Adams are no longer in productions - and Thomas Jeffersons will give way to James Madison very soon.
ref: 2007 September 9, Jim Seymour, “Coin scam in the open?”, in rec.collecting.coins (Usenet), archived from the original on 22 Jun 2025:
text: Now the mint is really pushing the gold Presidential dollar coins that started up last year hoping that people will collect the full set of presidents (I do) - I always get them in change from the office soda machine and at the post office stamp machine. In fact I have three Thomas Jeffersons jingling in my pocket as I write this.
ref: 2008 August 12, Paul Dietenberger, “OT: 2$ Bill”, in rec.antiques.radio+phono (Usenet), archived from the original on 22 Jun 2025:
text: Included in my nascent collection of eight presidential dollar coins are two Thomas Jeffersons and one Andrew Jackson, neither of whom should need an introduction.
ref: 2014, Gerald Karey, “Do You Have Change for a Sacagawea?”, in Unhinged: Reflections, Opinions, Humor, Reminiscences, an Occasional Rant, Reportage—a Random Chronicle of Our Times, Amherst, Mass.: Small Batch Books, →ISBN, section 15 (A Baker’s Dozen), page 373:
glosses: A United States dollar coin featuring Thomas Jefferson.