Green’s Dictionary of Slang

spon n.

money.

1880		Bulletin (Sydney) 18 Dec. 4/4: We’ve watched thee, Peter, with an int’rest keen; / And even of the ‘spons.’ we’ve some idea.
1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 24 Jan. 10/4: We know the subject of the team, / With all its pros. and cons; / And now it does most surely seem / They play but for the ‘spons.’ [Ibid.] 18 Apr. 18/3: Fortune tellers ply their lucrative calling, and wax fat on the ‘spons’ of the credulous and superstitious yahoos, who will willingly plank down 5s. to be told that if they do not die before the year 1960, they will live to a ripe old age.
1889		N.Y. Daily Trib. 6 Jan. 15/5: ‘I wanter go to California,’ says I, ‘and I haven’t got the “spons.”’.
1900		E.H. Babbitt ‘College Words and Phrases’ in DN II:i 63: spon, n. Money.
1901		Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 28 Aug. 3/3: Champagne was flowing like water [and] a litle bird whispers that Mr Joe Brown put up the ‘sponds’ for it.
1902		Bulletin (Sydney) 27 Sept. 29/2: Fur there’s whips er shine women, / An’ liquor an’ spons, / When yer lurk / Is ter work / Fur the demons an’ johns.
c.1905		J. Furphy Rigby’s Romance (1921) Ch. xxi 🌐 I give him credit for whackin’ the (adj.) spons after that style.
1910		Truth (Perth) 9 July 7/8: For he’s fat and rich and retched / On the spons as he have made.
1924		F.J. Wilstach Sl. Dict. Stage 29: ‘Mazum,’ ‘mazuma,’ ‘cush,’ ‘denoya,’ ‘rocks,’ ‘spons,’ ‘spondulix,’ ‘long green,’ ‘yellowbacks,’ ‘dough,’ ‘mononny,’ ‘da mon’.
1928		M. Bodenheim Georgie May 235: Ah’m broke and ah need the spon’!
1996		P. Howard The Joy (2015) [ebook] He never seemed to flash any of the sponds he claimed to earned from various ‘job’ and ‘blags’.
1998		Guardian Sport 18 Sept. 16: Lorryloads of sponds parked outside your house.
2000		J.J. Connolly Layer Cake 85: When the establishment Mafioso realise how much gilt, paper, cashish, wonga, wedge, corn, cutter, loot, spondos, dollar, readies, shillings, golding, dough, money is on offer.
2000		P. Howard Miseducation of Ross O’Carroll-Kelly (2004) 83: Give me some sponds.
2001		C. McPherson Port Authority 6: She cooked the dinner and packed in the job and I earned the spons.
2005		P. Howard Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nightdress 91: It’s pretty obvious the sponds are history.
2017		L. McInerney Blood Miracles : ‘I dig up the sponds to do a legger’.