page_title: Slang terms for money
section_title: United States
hierarchical_section_title: Slang terms for money / United States
context_page_description: Slang terms for money often derive from the appearance and features of banknotes or coins, their values, historical associations or the units of currency concerned. Within a single language community some of the slang terms vary across social, ethnic, economic, and geographic strata, but others have become the dominant way of referring to the currency and are regarded as mainstream, acceptable language.
context_section_description: General terms include bucks, dough, bread, moolah, cheddar, paper, cheese,stash, Benjamin, Benji, loot, smackers, and samoleons. Outdated or rarely used terms include: bones, clams, tamales, scratch, grease, cheese, guap, lettuce, salad, scrilla, scrill, chips, cake, ducats, spondulix, celery, and cabbage. The dollar has also been referred to as a "bean" or "bone" (e.g. twenty bones is equal to $20).
  U.S. coinage nicknames reflect their value, composition and tradition.
  The “ONE CENT” coin ($0.01 or 1¢) is commonly called a penny due to historical comparison with the British penny. Older U.S. pennies, prior to 1982, are sometimes called “coppers” due to being made of 95% copper. Pennies dated 1909–1958, displaying wheat stalks on the reverse, are sometimes called “wheaties” or “wheat-backs”, while 1943 steel wheat cents are sometimes nicknamed "steelies".
  The “FIVE CENTS” coin ($0.05 or 5¢) is commonly called a nickel due to being made of 25% nickel since 1866.
  The “ONE DIME” coin ($0.10 or 10¢) is worth ten cents and is simply referred to as a dime.
  The “QUARTER DOLLAR” coin ($0.25 or 25¢) is worth twenty-five cents and is commonly called a quarter. A quarter used to be called two-bits (see below), but this is falling out of use.
  The “HALF DOLLAR” coin ($0.50 or 50¢) is worth fifty cents and is commonly called a “fifty-cent piece”.
  Dimes and quarters used to be sometimes collectively referred to as “silver” due to their historic composition of 90% silver prior to 1965.
  A bit is an antiquated term equal to one eighth of a dollar or ​12 ¹⁄₂ cents, so "two bits" is twenty-five cents (after the Spanish 8-Real "piece of eight" coin on which the U.S. dollar was initially based). Similarly, "four bits" is fifty cents. More rare are "six bits" (75 cents) and "eight bits" meaning a dollar. These are commonly referred to as two-bit, four-bit, six-bit and eight-bit.
  U.S. banknote nicknames reflect their values (such as five, twenty, etc.), the subjects depicted on them and their color.
  $1 bill (ONE DOLLAR) is sometimes called a "single," a "buck," a "simoleon" or rarely an "ace".
  $2 bill is sometimes referred to as a "deuce" or a "Tom".
  $5 bill has been referred to as a "fin", "fiver" or "five-spot".
  $10 bill is a "sawbuck", a "ten-spot", or a "Hamilton".
  $20 bill as a "Jackson", or a "dub", or a "double sawbuck".
  Among horse-race gamblers, the $50 bill is called a "frog" and is considered unlucky. It is sometimes referred to as a "Grant."
  $100 bill is occasionally "C-note" (C being the Roman numeral for 100, from the Latin word centum) or "century note"; it can also be referred to as a "Benjamin" (after Benjamin Franklin, who is pictured on the note), or a "yard" (so $300 is "3 yards" and a $50 bill is a "half a yard"). "A rack" is $10,000 in the form of one hundred $100 bills, banded by a bank or otherwise.
  $1000 notes are occasionally referred to as "large" ("twenty large" being $20,000, etc.). In slang, a thousand dollars may also be referred to as a "grand" or "G", "K" (as in kilo), or a "stack" as well as a "band" . For example, "The repairs to my car cost me a couple grand" or "The repairs to my car cost me a couple [of] stacks".
  $100,000 US dollars is called a "brick".
  Banknotes may be collectively referred to as "dead Presidents", although neither Alexander Hamilton ($10) nor Benjamin Franklin ($100) was President. These are also referred to as "wallet-sized portraits of Presidents" – referencing the fact that people typically carry pictures in their wallets.
  "Greenback" originally applied specifically to the 19th century Demand Note dollars created by Abraham Lincoln to finance the costs of the American Civil War for the North. The original note was printed in black and green on the back side. It is still used to refer to the U.S. dollar (but not to the dollars of other countries).
  Other more general terms for money, not specifically linked to actual banknotes:
  Monetary units larger than 1 dollar are often referred to by the names of their coin counterparts: $5 is a "nickel," $10 is a "dime," and $25 is a "quarter."
  One 
caption: 1917 “greenback”
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