Five and ten dollar bills. The former are or were occasionally called V spots.
1837. Once it [my pocket-wallet] was as portly as an alderman after the annual dinner; and when distended with V’s and X’s to its utmost capacity, it was indeed a circumstance in my pocket, worth noticing.—Knick. Mag., ix. 96 (Jan.).
1837. I’ll bet you a V we don’t see anything of the kind.—Balt. Comml. Transcript, May 19, p. 2/2.
1843. The thimble-rigger, while he pocketed the V or X of some greenhorn, did not cease to expatiate on the favorite horse.—Phila. Spirit of the Times, May 27.
1846. One wanted to bet him a horse on H’s colt vs. his Indian Dick—another a V., and another an X., and so on.—W. T. Porter, ed., ‘A Quarter Race in Kentucky,’ etc., p. 119.
1848.
| I thought thet gold-mines could be gut cheaper than Chiny asters, | |
| An’ see myself acomin’ back like sixty Jacob Astor’s; | |
| But sech idees soon melted down an’ did n’t leave a grease-spot; | |
| I vow my holl sheer o’ the spiles would n’t come nigh a V spot. | |
Lowell, ‘Biglow Papers,’ No. 8. |
1852. He looked so dandified, green, and innocent, that they let him win five dollars the first time, and then, on the rigger’s proposing to bet a hundred, his supposed victim applied the finger of scorn to the nose of derision, and strutted off with his V. [note, A five-dollar bill is so called from the designation in Roman numerals upon it], to the great amusement of the bystanders.—C. A. Bristed, ‘The Upper Ten Thousand,’ p. 239 (N.Y.).
1853. “As I said, I’ll give you a V. for one pull.” “Say an X., and it is a bargain.”—Daily Morning Herald, St. Louis, June 28.
1856.
| If we had owned a V. or two, | |
| Which vanished like the morning dew, | |
| We wouldn’t have been surprised,—would you? | |
San Francisco Call, Dec. 5. |
1857. He insisted on spending a V. by way of a morning whet.—Id., Feb. 17.
