Money for old rope

[GK2005]

What is the origin of this saying? I was once told that it originated from the days of public hangings, spectators used to take the rope after the hanging and sell it to make money. Is there any truth in this?

[Quizmonster]

Click here for an answer. The site does not mention the hanging aspect, though no doubt parts of the hangman's rope were sold as a grotesque memento.

[Quizmonster]

I should have added above that there is no record of the phrase prior to the 1930s, though other phrases such as 'money for jam' had been around for a little longer.
I suspect, therefore, that explanations involving hangmen and old-time sailors might be little more than folk etymology!

[woofgang]

I can vouch for the story of seamen selling rope when they are broke....and not hundreds of years ago either!!

[Quizmonster]

I think the recency is the key point here, W. The link-site I offered in my opening answer stresses the 'hundreds of years ago' angle of the phrase, but it simply didn't exist then...no-one ever used it thus in historical times.
Writers such as Evelyn Waugh in 'Put out More Flags' , published in 1942, were among the first ever to suggest that anything easy might be referred to as 'money for old rope'. That is the idiomatic meaning of the phrase; selling actual rope - whether one is a hangman or a sailor - isn't quite the same thing and I rather doubt there ever was any connection.

[Richard50]

I thought it was based on something similar, but based on what the hangman was paid per hanging, ie 'easy money'