Coins With Nicknames (And Possibly Also Banknotes)

So, if you walked into a coin shop in Poland and used these names only, without specifying the dates/values, you should be understood:

"Konstytucja" (constitution) - silver 5 zloty 1925 (which ultimately wasn't put into circulation),
"Nike" (the Greek goddess) - silver 5 zloty 1928/32,
"Sztandar" (banner) - silver 5 zloty 1930,
"Babka" (woman) - silver 10 zloty 1932/33*,
"Dziadek" (grandfather) - silver 10 zloty 1934/39 with the image of Pilsudski on the reverse*,
"Rybak" (fisherman) - aluminum 5 zloty 1958/74,
"Ciezka zlotowka" (heavy zloty) - copper-nickel version of 1 zloty 1949.

* there are three face values with this design and I at least would understand you meant the top one.

Obviously, they are a reference to the image on the coin, except for the last one which got its name from its composition (esp. compared to those that followed it).

As for local banknotes, I'm not that well-versed. All I know is that:

"Goral" (person living in the Tatra Mountains area) - 500 zloty 1940 issued during German occupation,
"Gornik" (miner) - 500 zloty 1948.

These directly refer to the image on the notes as well.

Come to think of it, there was a famous error in 2007 where a bunch of dollar coins were not fed through the rim punching machine, and so did not have the motto "IN GOD WE TRUST", thus were called "godless dollars". I have actually heard people use that name for the regular coins, mistakenly believing that either all coins were missing the motto, or else it was a secret atheist agenda to "put god on the side".

I have yet to hear it outside of Mary Poppins, but I have always liked the British "tuppence" for the two pence coin.

There's also the groat (4d) and three ha'pence (1.5d)

One of my favorites was the Roman follis. When introduced, it was said to have been worth a bag full of the then-worthless antoninianii. Follis in Latin most accurately means "sack"--the Romans being a lewd and sophomoric bunch, there were many inappropriate jokes made.

In Aus we have;

3d = Tray
6d = zack
1 shilling = Bob
2 shillings = 2 Bob
The nickname for the 1937 and 1938 Crowns is "Casey's Cartwheel"
The only nickname I am aware of for any of the Decimal coins is that we call out $1 and $2 coins "Goldies"

Surely we cannot forget the, um

"Dong Dollar"

http://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces4156.html

And when the Byzantine follis was introduced in 498 AD, it was supposed to be worth a bag of (again) nearly worthless nummi.
The name "nummus", incidentally, pretty much just means "coin".

There's a lot of colorful nicknames attached to the Russian money, but most of them are either way out of date, very serious jargon not to be used anywhere near polite company, or pretty much directly based on the number.
Perhaps the most interesting is "poltinnik", a classic name for the 50 kopek coin (half ruble) that now refers to the 50 ruble banknote - 50 kopeks being a mostly useless amount of money.
The 10 ruble (both coin and banknote) had apparently ended up with both the old 10 kopek nickname ("grivennik", which goes way way back to the origins of Russian currency) and the old 10 ruble nickname ("chervonets", from the 1920s Soviet gold standard attempt). Meanwhile hardly anybody ever needs to refer to the 10 kopek coins (circa 0.15 US cents), but when they do they usually say "desyatyunchik" (basically "ten" with a bunch of diminutive suffixes).
And of course every coin dealer would know what you mean when you ask for "cheshuiki" (literally "fishscales") - it refers to wire money.

Let's not forget India's 1911 "pig" coins.

And I can't believe no one mentioned the $5 Woodchopper yet?

"Go directly to jail" . Canadian banknotes being referred to as Monopoly money by our neighbours to the south.

This is a very interesting thread . how about the 1959 Jefferson improperly annealed Nickel known as the
''Black Beauty''. The 1944 no MM Jefferson we call a
''Henning'' . the Lincoln Cent nicknamed the ''penny''.
Large size currency called ''horse blankets''
On those Jeff's other dates known to exist .