Sawbucks

News: Welcome to the Canadian Paper Money Forum.

Ok, here's one I've wundered about recently...

Where does the term "sawbuck" come from? Shinplasters I understand, "G notes", I get, but "sawbucks"?  

Paul: The term "sawbuck", pertaining to a ten dollar bill, originated in the late 1890's and came from a carpenter's sawhorse: 2 pieces of wood shaped in the form of an X.....leading to the X on old 10.00 notes....to the Roman numeral X which stands for 10 . Try Googleing sawbuck for other origins of the sawbuck.

BTW  your reply about the 1 in 40 notes being an error was not interpreted as being realistic and was taken in humour .

PBW: good to hear, since most of what I say is suppose to be humourous and I'm finding more and more that it isn't (funny).  

Then of course, we have double sawbucks ($20), and fin for $5. The English language has always been prone to slang words, and words that may have been local in nature and drifted into common usage.

Think about the common usage of current notes, the bird series and journey series, terms that outside those who collect them are never used.

Rick