Green’s Dictionary of Slang

money, gold.

1833		‘Flare Up!’ in Rake’s Budget in Spedding & Watt (eds) Bawdy Songbooks (2011) III 66: So when t’was done, he told the mot, / As how he had no ochre got!
1836		‘A Good Frisky Mot Ever Makes A Man Jolly’ in Cockchafer 22: We’re sure to feel frisky, be it early or late, / So we tip her the ochre, and go at her straight!
1841		‘Ax My Eye’ Dublin Comic Songster 101: With them wi’ empty gropusses, / I sports my ochre like a brick.
1843		Leicester Chron. 17 June 4/6: Here’s a chance; here’s a bloak with plenty of ‘oaker’.
1844		New Sprees of London 3: [S]o flare up and speal your tin—shell out like a brick—spend the ochre—crall the Crowns.
1854		Dickens Hard Times (1969) 73: If you want to cheek us, pay your ochre at the doors, and take it out.
1865		Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 119/1: Strike me a dead-un, if there ain’t more ‘screeve’ than would cover a haystack! and twig the ‘ochre’, how it turns out.
1879		‘’Arry on Crutches’ in Punch 3 May 201/1: You must ha’ bin nobblin’ the ochre so much on your chum to ’ave spent.
1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 24 Jan. 10/4: Of glory they have had enough, / But when you go for ‘poker,’ / And things turn out a trifle ‘rough,’ You must play for the ‘ochre.’.
1894		J. Astley Fifty Years (2nd edn) I 35: A rather useful mare, that I christened ‘Ochre’ on account of her having managed to secure me a certain amount of gold in [...] various matches.
1895		C. Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 53: Ochre, money.
1906		Sun (NY) 9 Sept. 3/3: He was sorting over a package of ochre papes.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn) 168: oochre [sic] Money.