Page 19 - IAV Digital Magazine #495

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The Not-So-Simple History Of Why We Call Dollars 'Bucks'
By Caroline Bologna, HuffPost US
Moolah. Benjamins. Stacks. Big ones. Cheddar. They have a lot of slang terms for money in the U.S.
While the mean- ing behind some of these terms may seem obvi- ous, it's less intu- itive for others. "Bucks", which has become syn- onymous with "dollars" in mod- ern vernacular, is
one example of the latter.
So why do we call dollars "bucks"?
A widely held belief involves the use of the word "buck" to mean "a male animal; especial- ly,a male deer or antelope". Back in the 18th centu- ry, European set- tlers and Native Americans often traded buckskins, or deerskins, as a form of curren- cy.
One of the earli- est cited refer- ences to bucks as currency is a 1748 journal entry from Conrad Weiser, a Pennsylvania Dutch pioneer, interpreter and diplomat. In his journal, he described the rate for a cask of whiskey as "5 Bucks", reported- ly in reference to deerskins. The journal also cited a man who was "robbed of the value of 300 Bucks."
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