cole, n. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

cole n.

also coal

[SE coal, the staple, as a heat-provider, of everyday life, as is money. Cole had faded by 19C but post the cole lasted, increasingly in metaphorical use, until late 19C. Also ? link to SE cole, brassica, an earlier play on cabbage n.² (3a); however note Fr. 15C Provencal coler, to follow an occuption, ult. Latin colere, to cultivate]

1. (UK Und.) money.

1591		Greene Second Part of Conny-Catching in Grosart (1881–3) X 110: It fortuned that a Nip and his staul drinking at the three Tuns in Newgate market, sitting in one of the roomes next to the streete, they might perceiue wher a meale man stood selling of meale, and had a large bag by his side, where by coniecture there was some store of mony: the old Coole, the old cut-purse I mean, spying this, was delighted with the shew of so glorious an object.
1654		New Brawle 11: Go, go ye Bulking Roague you, go to your fellow Pick-pockets sirrah, go Pinch the Rum Culle again of the Coale.
1661		‘Peter Aretine’ Strange Newes 3: Wand. Wh—. For when the Cole is gone, the simple Elf / Is not the owner of it, but my self.
1671		‘L.B.’ New Academy of Complements 205: The thirteenth a Fambler, false rings for to sell, / When a Mob he has bit, his Cole he will tell.
1676		A Newgate ex-prisoner A Warning for House-Keepers 5: We bite the Culley of his cole / But we are rubbed unto the Whitt.
1688		T. Shadwell Squire of Alsatia I i: Coal is, in the language of the witty, money; the ready, the rhino. Thou shalt be rhinocerical, my lad, thou shalt.
c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Moveables, Rings, Watches, Swords, and such Toies of value. As we bit all the Cull’s Cole and Moveables, we Won all the Man’s Money, Rings, Watches, &c.
a.1700		Song of the 17C quoted in Nares Gloss. (1859) 114: The twelfth a trapan, if a cull he doth meet, He naps all his cole, and turns him i’ the street.
1700		T. Brown Amusements Serious and Comical in Works (1744) III 18: But as it [i.e. St Paul’s Cathedral] fell before, by fire, / Which they destroy’d it whole, / So now to heav’n its heights affirm, / And rise again by coal.
1725		Life and Glorious Actions of [...] Jonathan Wilde 31: He must of necessity [...] convey him thereunto [i.e to Newgate] provided he doth not come down the Civil Coal (viz. Civility Money).
1728		J. Dalton Narrative of Street-Robberies 8: They us’d him only as a Baggage Man; that is, to loop off with the Cole when they had made a Prey.
1734		C. Johnson Hist. of Highwaymen &c. 74: I was forced to come down some more Cole.
1741		in H. Walpole ballad Letters I (1891) 86: This our Captain no sooner had finger’d the cole, But he hies him abroad with his good Madam Vole.
1756		W. Toldervy Hist. of the Two Orphans IV 102: He gave her the cole.
1761		Nancy Dawson’s Jests 33: They will handsomely down with the cole.
1770		D. Gunston (ed.) Jemmy Twitcher’s Jests 15: Conundrums [...] Why is a large fire like a spendthrift? Answer. Because it consumes the cole.
a.1789		G. Parker ? ‘The Sandman’s Wedding’ in Farmer Musa Pedestris (1896) 65: Joe sold his sand, and cly’d his cole.
1790		‘Bumper Allnight. Esquire’ Honest Fellow 37: And except they will handsomely down with the coal.
1801		C. Dibdin Yngr Song Smith 47: While our belles, in new bonnets to set off their hair, / First spend all their cole, then the skuttle they wear.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1812		Spirit of Irish Wit 255: The coachman [...] pocketed the cole.
1821		‘An Amateur’ Real Life in London I 611: Here comes the gay fellows, here they come upon the trot, all eager and anxious to mark the first blow, start the odds, and curry the coal.* [* Curry the coal — Make sure of the money].
1829		London Standard 19 Jan. 3/4: Bee! Ba! Black sheep, have you any cole* [*Cole — the stuff, the stumpy, money].
1836		‘Let Shame Crown the Strumpet’ Flash Casket 56: Spoonies may squander their cole.
1842		Whip & Satirist of NY & Brooklyn (NY) 10 Sept. n.p.: The ‘coals’ to make good the whole of the betting money [...] were posted as usual .
1848		Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open.
1865		Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 27/2: If I could only raise as much ‘coal’ as would take me to Brighton, I would go right there and ‘do’ that jeweller’s crib. [Ibid.] 31/2: After I ‘piched’ the ‘cole’ I ‘slung’ the ‘dummy’ to Bob Coombs.
1867		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 14 Sept. n.p.: She called on Rooney, the ‘rum bluffer’ of the ‘lush drum’ [...] to ‘part the cole,’ which he did.
1877		‘The Fashionable Coaley’ Laughing Songster 101: For when the coal is given you, / Give all old pals the sack, sirs.
1882		Sydney Sl. Dict. (2 edn) 2: Coal - Money.
1923		Northern Whig 12 Sept. 8/6: My blowen kidded a bloke into a panel crib and shook him of his thimble to put up the coal, but it wouldn’t fadge and I got three stretches.

2. a penny.

1911		J.W. Horsley Memoirs of a ‘Sky Pilot’ 254: Other [words] were new to me, such as [...] coal for a penny.
1931		‘English Und. Sl.’ in Variety 8 Apr. n.p.: Cole — Penny.
1934		P. Allingham Cheapjack 39: They ’aven’t got it, son. They ’aven’t got a coal.
1938		L. Ortzen Down Donkey Row 12: Cole – A penny.
1950		Eve. Teleg. (Dundee) 4 Sept. 5: The costers have their own money-slang [...] A penny is called a ‘cole’.

In phrases

hard cole (n.)

(US Und.) cash (silver or gold), as opposed to banknotes.

1859		Matsell Vocabulum.
1881		Trumble Sl. Dict. (1890) 17: Hard cole. Silver or gold money.

post (down) the cole (v.)

to pay down money.

1771		R. King New London Spy 69: [H]e immediately posted the cole.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: Cole, money. Post the cole: pay down the money.
1823		‘Jon Bee’ Dict. of the Turf, the Ring, the Chase, etc. 55: Cole — money. [Ibid.] 139: ‘Post down the cole,’ put down the money.
1825		Age (London) 15 May 5/2: Young Lambton, from Durham, determin’d to stir ’em, / Posts on, as he would were he ‘posting the coal’ .
1846		Censor (London) 18 Jan. 5/3: [C]oal is very abundant in China, which will account for their readiners [sic] in ‘posting the coal’ after they were beaten by the English.
1859		‘Scene in a London Flash-Panny’ Matsell Vocabulum 98: ‘Make it two,’ said a woman, [...] ‘and if Jim don’t post the cole, I will.’.
1861		Vanity Fair (N.Y.) 9 Nov. 216: At WILLARD’S afterwards we’ll call the roll, / Order up booze and never post the cole.
1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict. 103: ‘post the coal,’ put down the money.
1882		Sydney Sl. Dict. (2 edn) 2: ‘Post the coal,’ put down the money. Term long used in the sporting world.
1883		G.A. Sala in Illus. London News 10 Nov. 451, col. 3: The lamented [...] once entreated the guests present to post the cole, i.e. to be prompt with their subscriptions and donations [F&H].
1895		Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 18: Post the Cole, pay the money.
1895		Mirror of Life 23 Mar. 11/3: Callan [...] stated that he had ‘posted the cole’ and there was now no obstacle to prevent [the prizefight].

smuggle the cole (v.)

to pretend that one has no money when it is time to pay a bill at an inn or tavern.

1687–88

in Miège Great French Dict.

tip (up) the cole (v.)

to pay (a bill).

1665		Head Eng. Rogue I 52: Tip the Cole to Adam Tyler, Give what money you pocket-pickt to the next party, presently.
a.1674		‘Of the Budge’ Head Canting Academy (1674) 12: For when that he hath nubbed us, / And our friends tips him no cole, / He takes his Chive and cuts us down / And tips us into the hole.
1707		J. Shirley Triumph of Wit 32: For when that he hath nubbed us, / And our friends tip him no cole / He takes his chive and cuts us down, / And tips us into a hole.
1714		A. Smith Lives of Most Noted Highway-men, etc. I 210: Tip the Cole to Adam Tyler, that’s, give what Money you have pick’d up out of the Man’s Pocket, to the next Party.
1724		‘Frisky Moll’s Song’ in J. Thurmond Harlequin Sheppard 22: I Frisky Moll, with my rum coll, / Wou’d Grub in a bowzing ken; / But ere for the scran he had tipt the cole, / The Harman he came in.
1803		‘A Pembrochian’ Gradus ad Cantabrigiam Dedication: Such language as the following. — ‘Luckily I cramm’d him so well, that honest Jollux tipt me the coal’.
1839		(con. 1703) W.H. Ainsworth Jack Sheppard (1840) 34: If he don’t tip up the cole without more ado, give him a taste of the pump, that’s all.