Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (UK Und.) £5; a £5 note; thus half a finnif, £2.10s.

1840		Courier (Hobart, Tas.) 27 Oct. 3/1: [advert, from UK source] Upper Benjamins, built up a Downey plan either for riding or driving, from 3 couters and a half to a finnuff.
1847		Bell’s Life in Sydney 20 Nov. 2/2: Our downey friend, the sporting Joe Mathews of Wellington, was also choused out of a finniff by my nab.
1848		Bell’s Life in Sydney 26 Feb. 1/4: Jinney and me can make finnuf funt some weeks.
1857		advert in ‘Ducange Anglicus’ Vulgar Tongue (1857) 45: Upper Benjamins built on a downy plan, a monarch to half a finnuff.
1860		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. (2nd edn) 140: FINUF, a five-pound note.
1865		Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 25/1: I’ll bet you a ‘finnif’ that I get her to go with me to the ‘gaff’ tonight.
1870		Hotten Sl. Dict. [as cit. 1860].
1887		Cornishman 6 Jan. 4/3: Specimens of mumpers' or tramps' talk [...] finnif, a five-pound note.
1889		Dead Bird (Sydney) 21 Dec. 8/4: The first race we cops a finnif.
1893		P.H. Emerson Signor Lippo 83: I was backed to scrap a cove bigger nor me for a finnif a side.
1895		Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 28: Finnuf, a five pound note; double finnufs, a ten-pound note; long-tailed finnufs, large notes.
1907		D. Stewart Shadows of the Night in Illus. Police News 22 June 12/3: ‘He was copping it ’ot from some bookies for passing some snide finnufs (five pound notes)’.

2. (US) $5.

1859		Matsell Vocabulum.
1871		J.H. Banka State Prison Life 492: Five dollars, [...] Pheniff. Ten Dollars [...] Double Pheniff.
1905		H. Green Actors’ Boarding House (1906) 212: Often we find that a few blank cheques and a ‘finiph’ or so are all a wallet contains.
1905		Little Falls Herald (MN) 31 Mar. 3/3: How to Operate the Shell Game with Profit [...] If the ‘gee’ springs a fat roll, tip the ollie a finif to vamp until the blow off.
1911		Winnipeg Trib. (Manitoba) 9 Dec. 19/1: ‘Pinnif— [...] a five dollar bill.
1917		Van Loan ‘Levelling with Elisha’ in Old Man Curry 28: I had a finnif bet on friend Isaiah.
1928		Hecht & MacArthur Front Page Act I: How about a finif till tomorrow?
1929		M. Prenner ‘Sl. Terms for Money’ in AS IV:5 358: Five dollars is finniff.
1931		Irwin Amer. Tramp and Und. Sl. 73: Finif.–See ‘fin.’ Some claim this is a corruption of a Yiddish word, and it is generally used to indicate a five-dollar bill.
1935		A.J. Pollock Und. Speaks n.p.: Finuf, five dollars.
1938		D. Runyon ‘A Very Honorable Guy’ in Runyon on Broadway (1954) 418: He asks me if I happen to have a finnif on me.
1943		W.F. Whyte Street Corner Society (1955) 163: They are going to show you plenty of finifs, sawbucks, and double sawbucks.
1951		D. Dressler Parole Chief 237: Occasionally (for an extra finif or so) a fight will start.
1962		Ragen & Finston World’s Toughest Prison 798: finif = A five-dollar bill.

3. (US Und.) a five-year jail sentence.

1904		Number 1500 Life In Sing Sing 248: Finif. Five years.
1910		Wash. Post 3 July 3/1: If the rube hadn’t been fixed to stay away and Hoppy had got a finif fer dippin’ inter his prat-kick, he’d had plenty of time ter saw off his habit.
1924		G. Henderson Keys to Crookdom 404: Finif. Five. Five years.
1933		Ersine Und. and Prison Sl.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).