Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(orig. milit.) money.

1860		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. (2nd edn) 121: Corks money; ‘how are you off for corks?’ a sailors’ term of a very expressive kind, denoting the means of ‘keeping afloat’.
1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict.
1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.