Pocket full of rooks

Plenty of money.

1847.  You know if I had a ‘pocket full of rocks,’ you should share them, for I like you, vastly.—Robb, ‘Streaks of Squatter Life,’ &c., p. 165 (Phila.). (Italics in the original.)

1850.  

1851.  Thar’s a feller here named Andy Smith, with a pocket full of rocks. He has just sold a tract of land, and pocketed the dimes.—‘Polly Peablossom’s Wedding,’ &c., p. 45.

1853.  These sort of chaps don’t allers get off cheap, ’specially if they haven’t got a pocketful of rocks to pay all hands.—S. A. Hammett (‘Philip Paxton’), ‘A Stray Yankee in Texas,’ p. 186.

1853.  Mr. Drake was returning home with his pocket full of rocks, from Chicago, where he had been to dispose of a load of grain.—Daily Morning Herald, St. Louis, June 28.

[1853.  I’ll come and make you Mrs. Jenkins; but I want to get the rocks first.—Durivage, ‘Life Scenes,’ p. 59.]

1853.  His adversary was distinguished for possessing a “pocket full of rocks.”—Id., p. 208.

1855.  Wal, arter four years Ben came back with a “pocket full of rocks”; he’d made his pile.—Herald of Freedom, Lawrence, Kas., May 26.

1855.  He was assured by his better half that Mr. R. had “a pocket full of rocks.”—Oregon Weekly Times, Aug. 4.

1857.  [He had received flattering accounts of the California gold mines] from the few of his acquaintances who had seen the elephant, and had returned with a pocket full of rocks.—San Francisco Call, Jan. 7.

1859.  I told you that you’d be half crazy about Effie’s brother and his pocket full of rocks.—Mrs. Duniway, ‘Captain Gray,’ p. 238 (Portland, Oregon).

[1859.