Where Have All The Coin Nicknames Gone?

G'day,
"swy" = zwei, German for "two":
I've only ever heard this as an alternative name for "two-up".
I've never heard it applied to a particular coin.
I have heard it said that purists of swy insist on KG5 Australian pennies, because they give the purest result.
It is said that all other pennies tend to favour one side.

The $20-note is often referred to as a "rock lobster".

At a funeral earlier this month, the deceased's grandson reminisced that whenever he got selected to represent the Territory in football, "Grandpa was always at the airport to see me off, and always put a golden pineapple in my hand" ... referring to a $50-note. He and hisrothers all went to have successful football careers, so the incentive was possibly valuable.

I can't recall any names for other notes, except for the obvious "fiver" and "tenner".

The Poms called their sixpence a "tanner", but in Oz, that term was never used by locals.

Peter in Darwin

Couple of slang terms used by the younger generation for $50 and $100 notes are Fiddy and Hunge.

Steve

G'day ... again,

Muckeye, I remember that right upto 1966, a dollar meant five shillings, which became confusing when, by law, ten shillings converted into one dollar. I thought that this was just a loose, colloquial usage. But I was wrong. The rate of exchange for "Spanish Dollars", a.k.a. eight reales; a.k.a. pieces of eight was fixed at five shillings for many years. The Spanish dollar, as I understand it, was the basis of the American dollar. In N.S.W. all government accounting upto about 1820 was in dollars. And, of course, in 1813, there was the "Holey Dollar".
But, most interesting was a British overstriking of Spanish dollars in 1804: here is a pic of one in my collection -


Image: BoEdollar1804rev.jpg
37.3 KB

You can see for yourself that in 1804, a "dollar" equalled five shillings, in that one coin carried both denominations.
Point of minor interest: of all my coins, this is the one that non-collectors express the most interest in.


well Triggersmob: the "young people" I mix with are in the 4~5 y.o. bracket.
I was fascinated by your references: my contemporary dictionary defines "fiddy" as an alternative to "fifty" generally, including $50, 50-cents, 50 per cent, etc, dating back to at least 2003.
"Hunge" is defined as specifically $100, and is dated to 2006.
I suddenly feel old.

... I'm over it.
In my childhood, I spent a lot of time at racetracks: my Dad was an unreformed gambler. I recall him using phrases, which confused me at the time. I can't recall, if indeed I ever knew, their meanings. So I've looked them up in my dictionary (same as above). These are references to amounts of money, rather than to particular notes or coins:
pony = 25 pounds
monkey = 500 pounds
gorilla = I quote "Australian Slang term for $1000" - but I suspect that it might have been 1000 pounds.
I'll ask my older acquaintances [yes: there's a few of them] if they can clarify these terms, and add others.
Peter in Darwin

Try This link. May have been shown before.

"Try This link. May have been shown before."
Yes, actually in my post starting this thread

Jeff