Nicknames of a U.S. Dollar

The colloquialism buck ( much like the Bristish term " quid") is often used to refer to dollars of various nations, including the U.S. dollar. This term, dating to the 18th century, may have originated with the colonial fur trade. Greenback is another nickname originally applied specifically to the 19th century Demand Note dollars created by Abraham Lincoln to finance the costs of the 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 well-known names of the dollar as a whole in denominations include "greenmail", "green", and "dead presidents", (the last due to the fact that late presidents are represented on the bills).

Grand, sometimes shortened to simply G, is a common term for the amount of $1,000. The suffix k (from "kilo-") is also commonly used to denote this amount (such as "$10k" to mean $10,000). In street slang, when someone refers to a "large" or "stack", they are usually referring to any amount of $1,000, such as "fifty large", meaning $50,000. Banknotes' nicknames are the same as their values (such as five, twenty, etc.) The $5 bill has been referred to as a "fin" or a "fiver" or a "five-spot;" the $10 bill as a "sawbuck," a "ten-spot," or a "Hamilton"; the $20 bill as a "double sawbuck," or a "Jackson"; the $1 bill is sometimes called a "single," or a "buck," the $2 bill a "deuce," "Jefferson," or a "T.J." and the $100 bill is nicknamed a "Benjamin," "Benji," or "Franklin" (after Benjamin Franklin, who is pictured on the note), C-note (C being the Roman numeral for 100), Century Note, or "bill" ("two bills" being $200, etc.). The dollar has also been referred to as a "bone" or "bones" (i.e., twenty bones is equal to $20) or a "bean". The newer designs are sometimes referred to as "Bigface" bills, or "Monopoly Money". Some people refer to U.S. money as "cha-chingers," "bucks," "green-backs," and also "smackers."

In Panama, the equivalent of buck is "palo" (literally "stick"). In Ecuador, the dollar is referred to as "lata". Puerto Ricans, both in Puerto Rico and in the U.S., may refer to the dollar as a peso. In French-speaking areas of Louisiana, the dollar is referred to as a piastre which is pronounced "pee-as", and cents by the French holdover of sous, pronounced "soo." In Mexico, in some places prices in dollars are referred to as "en americano" ("in American"). (In Mexico, peso is used primarily for the Mexican peso.) In Peru, a nickname for the U.S. dollar is coco, which is a pet name for Jorge (George in Spanish), a reference to the portrait of George Washington on the $1 note.