century, n. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

century n.

also century note

[16C SE century, a group of 100 things]

$100 or £100.

1859		Matsell Vocabulum 18: Century. One hundred dollars.
1860		Bell’s Life in Sydney 10 Mar. 3/2: He offered to accept Mr Asher’s offer of a bet of a ‘century’.
1865		Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 30/1: He [...] told us he had just seen a b—y fine ‘double-ender kicked’ by a rousing fat old ‘moll.’ He was sure there must be a ‘century’ in it at the very least.
1867		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 7 Sept. n.p.: Dan Noble [...] sloped to England some time ago with several ‘centuries’ belonging to ‘guns,’ got on the ‘graft’ [and] first made his appearance [...] on the ‘dip’.
1870		Sportsman (London) ‘Notes on News’ 4 Aug. 2/1: If he was worth the premises and a ‘century,’and he desired the.nntying of the marriage knot [etc].
1883		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 3 Nov. 6/1: ‘If you give Dutchy a stiff brace [...] he’ll be good for a century’.
1883		Echo 1 Nov. 4/2: Golding [...] purchased Passaic from F. Archer for a century [F&H].
1889		Dead Bird (Sydney) 16 Nov. 5/2: ‘I am sure my friends on the railway line would have given me a century if I had wanted it.
1894		Truth (Sydney) 19 Aug. 6/7: He [i.e. a boxer] has found a backer, and will go as high as a century if Nipper is agreeable.
1896		F. Hutcheson Barkeep Stories 28: ‘I ain’t got nothin’ less den a century note an’ don’t want ter break it here’.
1898		Binstead & Wells A Pink ’Un and a Pelican 192: It’s [i.e. a racing tip] good enough for my century, anyhow.
1905		Sun. Times (Perth) 5 Mar. 1/1: The Barrack-street man who offered £100 for the job found himself rushed [but] after learning all he wanted know he refused to spring the century.
1906		Sun (NY) 9 Sept. 3/3: I saw him stuff a century note on a thing that didn’t have a chance.
1909		H. Green Mr. Jackson 97: [His pocket] was filled with yellow-backs [...] ‘They’re all centuries.’.
1913–14		Van Loan ‘No Business’ Taking the Count 151: Our little friend [...] but [sic] a couple of centuries on Isidore.
1916		O.O. McIntyre New York Day By Day 25 July [synd. col.] They were tossing pearls and century notes and things in the primrose path of chorus girls.
1921		C.B. Booth ‘Mr Clacksworthy Within the Law’ Detective Story 13 Aug. 🌐 I’m layin’ a century note against the price of an L ticket that he pried her folks loose from a bundle of jack.
1928		‘J. Barbican’ Confessions of a Rum-Runner in Hamilton Men of the Und. 188: The poor sucker thought he had made at least four centuries.
1931		‘English Und. Sl.’ in Variety 8 Apr. n.p.: Century — £100 note.
1937		J. Tully Bruiser 29: Cut me in on another hundred of that – and another century that if there’s a knockout Rory here’ll land it.
1948		R.L. Bellem ‘Death Ends the Scene’ Hollywood Detective May 🌐 I had fifteen centuries in my poke—five yards that had come with the spurious suicide letter, and the thousand I’d taken from Bradborough.
1950		S.J. Baker in Sun. Herald (Sydney) 8 June 9/3: The underworld has an extensive vocabulary of financial terms. Among those recorded by Detective Doyle are: [...] ‘spot’ or ‘century,’ £100; ‘monkey,’ £500; ‘grand,’ £1,000.
1952		‘Burglar Cops’ in C. Hamilton Men of the Und. 117: I’d give five centuries if I could get to my summer residence.
1956		‘Raymond Thorp’ Viper 77: Fifteen quid for black market gear worth a couple of centuries!
1962		Ragen & Finston World’s Toughest Prison 794: century – One hundred dollars. A hundred-dollar bill.
1970		‘Red’ Rudensky Gonif 118: The last bag had nothing but centuries — sparkling $100 greens.
1981		J. Ellroy Brown’s Requiem 233: [He] dumped $7,400 in centuries and fifties in my lap.
1998		Guardian Sport 18 Sept. 16: I’ve gone for a century on next season.

In compounds

century note (n.)

(US) a $100 bill.

1905		H. Green Actors’ Boarding House (1906) 197: I wouldn’t take a century note fur it, an’ I need money bad.
1911		G. Bronson-Howard Enemy to Society 294: O’Shea calls th’ ‘dick’ over [...] and ‘mitts’ him five century notes.
1928		J. O’Connor Broadway Racketeers 67: He handed in ten of them and got two century notes in change.
1945		R.L. Bellem ‘Coffin for a Coward’ in Hollywood Detective Dec. 🌐 He [...] whipped out his billfold, peeled a couple of century notes from his stack.
1946		W.L. Gresham Nightmare Alley (1947) 243: This pile ought to be all five-century notes.
1952		I, Mobster 42: The broad put up an argument, the kind that needed only half a century note to settle.
1962		Ragen & Finston World’s Toughest Prison 794: century note – A one hundred dollar bill.

In phrases

half-century (n.) (also half-a-century)

1. £50.

1879		‘Autobiog. of a Thief’ in Macmillan’s Mag. (London) XL 505: Come on, we have had a lucky touch for a half century in pap (£50 in paper, i.e. notes).
1894		A. Morrison Tales of Mean Streets (1983) 153: Why did other gonophs get lucky touches for half a century of quids at a time.
1902		Sun. Times (Perth) 27 Apr. 2/2: The ex-M.L.A. could pawn the £100 ticket [...] and get half a century loan on it.
1914		N.Z. Truth 31 Jan. 2/1: Witness wore her half-century bunch of glitter and afterwards placed it in its case on her dressing table.

2. (US) $50 or a $50 note.

1885		Puck (N.Y.) 29 Apr. 138: I didn’t buy...an Eclectic [diploma] for a half-century [HDAS].
1895		S.F. Chron. 6 June 11/5: Den we turns a play at dice an’ wins a jasper for half a century.
1908		Sat. Eve. Post 5 Dec. 17/2: No, none of these twenties are from the new batch, [...] but this half-century is one that we’re all proud of [DA].
1915		G. Bronson-Howard God’s Man 281: Beau and me had beat him out of half-a-century at the ‘match’ one night.
1922		Times (Shreveport, LA) 29 Oct. 39/5: ‘You copped half a cench’ry while I was alseep’.
1931–4		D. Clemmer Prison Community (1940) 332/2: half a century, n. A fifty-dollar bill.
1947		J. Steinbeck Wayward Bus 105: Louis and that nigger was gonna split them up a coupla half centuries.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).

3. (W.I. drugs) a $50 bag of marijuana.

2007

Collie Buddz ‘Come Around’ 🎵 Me stash box never empty, / The fifty dollar bag we call that half century.