US Federal Reserve bank notes in denominations from one to one hundred dollars
7 January 2022
Buck is slang for a dollar. Originally, it applied to the US dollar, but has since been adopted as a slang term for other currencies that denominate in dollars, such as the Australian and New Zealand dollars. Buck is short for buckskin, as animal hides were used as currency along the American frontier in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
Evidence of the use of deer hides as currency can be seen in the account of William Biggs, who used them to negotiate a ransom when he was taken prisoner by the Kiikaapoa people in 1788 in what is now Indiana:
My friend McCauslin then inquired of them if they had agreed to sell me; they told him they would. McCauslin then sent for the interpreter, and the Indians asked one hundred buckskins for me in merchandize. The interpreter asked me if I would give it? I told them I would. The Indians then went to the traders’ houses to receive their pay. They took but seventy bucks’ worth of merchandize at that time.
[...]
The Indians then went and took their thirty dollars of balance and thirty more and went off home. I then owed the traders that advanced the goods for me one hundred and thirty buckskins for my ransom, which they considered equal to $260 in silver.
And there is this receipt from the Continental Army in 1779 for supplies purchased in what is now northeastern Ohio:
I do certify, that I am indebted to the bearer, Captain Johnny, seven bucks and one doe, for the use of the states, this 12th April, 1779. Signed Samuel Sample, assistant quarter master. The above is due to him for pork, for the use of the garrison at Fort Laurens.
(Signed) JOHN GIBSON, Colonel.
And there is this detailed description of trade with Indigenous people in Mount Vernon, Ohio, c.1815:
After smoking and talking awhile together, one only at a time arose, went to the counter, and, taking up a yard stick, pointed to the first article he desired, and inquired the price. The questions were in this manner: “how many buckskins for a shirt pattern?” or “cloth for leggings?” &c. According to their skin currency,
A muskrat skin was equal to a quarter of a dollar; a raccoon skin, a third of a dollar; a doe skin, half a dollar, and buck skin, “the almighty dollar.” The Indian, learning the price of an article, payed for it by picking out and handing over the skins, before proceeding to purchase the second, when he repeated the process, and so on through the whole, paying for every thing as he went on, and never waiting for that purpose until he had finished. While the first Indian was trading, the others looked uninterruptedly on, and when he was through, another took his place, and so on, in rotation, until all had traded. No one desired to trade before his turn, and all observed a proper decorum, and never attempted to “beat down,” but, if dissatisfied with the price, passed on to the next article. They were cautious not to trade while intoxicated; but usually preserved some of their skins to buy liquor, and end their visit with a frolic.
These early uses are all animal hides used as currency and as units of accounting, not as items for barter. These are instances of hides as monetary currency.
We finally see buck being used as slang for a dollar by 1856. From Sacramento, California’s Daily Democratic State Journal of 3 July 1856:
Bernard, assault and battery upon Wm. Croft; mulcted in the sum of twenty bucks; Wm. Croft standing as compared with Bernard, in a sort of vice versa position—paid costs, and departed in disgust.
Evidently, William Croft had some sort of legal responsibility for Bernard, so he had to pay Bernard’s fine even though he was the victim of the assault. No wonder he was disgusted.
Sources:
Biggs, William. Narrative of the Captivity of William Biggs Among the Kickapoo Indians in Illinois in 1788. New York: C.F. Heartman, 1922, 32–33. HathiTrust Digital Archive.
Green’s Dictionary of Slang, 2021, s.v. buck, n.3.
Hildreth, Samuel Prescott. Pioneer History. Cincinnati: H.W. Derby, 1848, 138. HathiTrust Digital Archive.
Howe, Henry. Historical Collections of Ohio. Cincinnati: E. Morgan, 1851, 274. HathiTrust Digital Archive.
Oxford English Dictionary, second edition, 1989, s.v. buck, n.8.
“Recorder’s Court.” Daily Democratic State Journal (Sacramento, California), 3 July 1856, 3. Readex: America’s Historical Newspapers.
Image credit: US Federal Reserve, 2018. Public domain image.