�50

[halcyon days]

Slang term for �50.

I have ssen it as half a ton or a pinky. any other suggestions or what do you think?

[Quoi]

Isnt it a pony?

[Postdog]

http://www.aldertons.com/money.htm

[halcyon days]

I believe a monkey is �550 and a pony is �25.

[halcyon days]

Sorry mis type monkey �500

[halcyon days]

Thanks postdog looked up site which gives quite a choice. Need a cockney on line to tell us which is the most used term

[Postdog]

I am a cockney, but to tell you the truth, all I have heard of is a score (20) pony (25) monkey (500) and a K (1000).

[Quizmonster]

'Nifty', for some. Here's what Michael Quinion - a genuine lexicographer/language expert - has to say...
"A term for �50, which I have never heard and which is in none of my reference books, was given by Jeff Howell in an article in the Independent on Sunday. He claims that 'nifty' is now a London builders� term for that sum.
It sounds plausible, as being an obvious rhyme."
Like him, I have never heard it used either and I've been around for a long, long time!

[Clayhead]

On racecourses, where slang for money is used all the time, the most common would be BULLSEYE.

[Graham2441]

It's a pony.

[Ice.Maiden]

A pony's �25, �50 a nifty or bulleye.

[Quizmonster]

In the early 19th century, a bull or bull's-eye was a crown or five shillings. Dickens wrote in Bleak House in the 1850s: "Four halfbulls or wot you may call halfcrowns."
If 'bull's-eye' now means �50.00, it must be a relative newcomer to the money-slang list, given that 'pony' dates back to the 1790s and 'monkey' to the 1830s.
I don't doubt that 'bull's-eye' is used by some for �50.00 nowadays, but I've certainly never heard it.

[Loosehead]

definately a Bullseye.

[Quizmonster]

Have you any idea when this usage appeared on the scene, LH? As my quote from him shows, neither the language expert, Michael Quinion, nor any of his sources has any record of it. Nor have I and nor has The Oxford English Dictionary, published in the late 1980s. Presumably it appeared in the Nineties. Have you any background on the matter at all?

[Loosehead]

I think it comes from the darts term, although I have no direct evidence of it. I've heard it used on a motoring show once by Mike Brewer. I think it has also been used in programmes like Minder and The Sweeney.

[Loosehead]

It's also used in Bingo apparently, got this from a Bingo site about the origin of the bingo numbers slang terms: 50. Bulls Eye: This piece of bingo slang comes from the game of darts, which for those who do not know, is a popular game in the United Kingdom which entails throwing small, flighted darts at a circular board divided up into numbered segments. The centre of this board is typically a small, circular dot called the "Bull's Eye" which, if hit, is worth 50 points. Hence 50 = Bulls Eye.

[Quizmonster]

Ah, thanks for that...it certainly makes sense, LH. It still seems odd, though - given how long darts, as well as gambling and money-slang, have been around - that the connection has taken such a long time to be established and is apparently so little known. Cheers

[pug100]

Form the slang dictionary :-

Monkey Noun. �500. Occasionally and confusingly also �50.

http://www.peevish.co.uk/slang/m.htm

Wiki says �500

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monkey_%28slang%2 9