Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(orig. US) rarely in sing., dollars or pounds sterling.

1918		Chicago Trib. 13 Jan. V2/4: ‘I’m feelin’ pretty good,’ said the boy. ‘A thousan’ smackers is a fancy hunk o’ change, even for me.’.
1921		T. Thursday ‘Hail the Professor’ in Top-Notch 1 Sept. 🌐 Not that I cared anything for the five hundred smackerinos, understand.
1924		Hecht & Bodenheim Cutie 13: He shelled out the seven and a half smackers.
1929		‘Ellery Queen’ Roman Hat Mystery 74: One hundred and twenty-two smackers.
1935		W. Smith Bessie Cotter 69: If I don’t get fifty smackers, I’ll stay right here with the old gat [...] and let ’em have it.
1938		F. Durbridge Send for Paul Temple (1992) 223: ‘Five thousand smackers!’ he said with delight.
1941		N. Davis ‘Don’t Give Your Right Name’ in Goulart (1967) 11: That stuff costs sixteen smackers a bottle.
1946		Sun (Sydney) 29 Sept. 15/1: When King became Gov. in 1800 he discovers that these smart alecks were bringing the stuff into the smoke for eight peg a gallon and the public were buying it for two smackers.
1955		D. Niland Shiralee 142: Me dump five hundred smackers when all I’m doing is making wages myself!
1968		P. Barnes Ruling Class I ii: Twenty thousand smackers! Yawee!
1978		F. Norman Dead Butler Caper 120: Even the three hundred smackers she’d laid on me [...] made the assignment only fractionally more acceptable.
1986		L. Heinemann Paco’s Story (1987) 81: They take in something like 250 smackers of a bingo night, all singles and fivers and sawbucks.
1991		(con. 1920s) O.D. Brooks Legs 168: But you’re the guy’s got the fifteen smackers.
1994		G. Disher Crosskill [ebook] A cash payment [...] ten thousand smackers.
1999		Indep. Rev. 17 July 5: Here’s 20,000 smackers.
2000		F. Mac Anna Cartoon City 14: He might lose his chance of being a features ace, not to mention three hundred smackers.
2007		Skins ser.1 ep.4 [TV script] ‘How much is there?’ ‘One thousand smackers’.
2012		(con. 1943) G.S. Manson Irish Fandango [ebook] ‘[F]ifty smackers for two days diggin’ . . . and there’s more in the tit’.