Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(Aus./N.Z.) money.

1905		Duke Tritton’s Letter n.p.: It is hard to believe that two years ago I was humpin’ the drum with you [and] spending all my Oscar Asche on Mud And Ooze, and two-up.
1919		W.H. Downing Digger Dialects 36: oscar — Money.
1919		Truth (Brisbane) 28 Sept. 2/3: [H]e would be too fat and lean to let even his own that the other get her German bands on his Oscar Ashe.
1924		E.G. Murphy ‘The Sport’ Dryblower’s Verses 50: A bank roll unto him is ‘Oscar Asche’ / A swindle is to him a ‘joke’, a ‘wrought’.
1925		(con. WWI) Fraser & Gibbons Soldier and Sailor Words 217: Oscar: Money.
1932		‘P.P.’ Rhy. Sl. 5: I’m going to the ‘tin tank’ to draw some ‘Oscar Ashe’.
1935		Mirror (Perth) 14 Sept. 17/4: Among race-goers the word Oscar means money, and the expression ‘did me Oscar’ is readily understood [...] due to the habit of referring to cash as ‘Oscar Asche’ at the time the heavyweight actor of former days was a popular stage star.
1943		Baker ‘Influence of Amer. Sl. on Aus.’ in AS XVIII:4 255: Here are a few of the items included: [...] oscar, money, ready cash.
1959		D. Niland Big Smoke 21: You’d have more oscar in your kick now than the Prime Minister himself.
1963–74		B. Humphries Barry McKenzie [comic strip] in Complete Barry McKenzie (1988) 60: What are we going to do for oscar?
1965		J. O’Grady Aussie Eng. (1966) 65: So ‘oodles of boodles’ equals ‘plenty moolah—or no shortage of oscar’.
1972		Dodson & Saczek Dict. of Cockney Rhy. Sl.
1972		A. Chipper Aussie Swearers Guide 67: Ned Kelly. [...] Anybody who separates an Aussie from his Oscar (Oscar Ash: cash).
1989		J. Morton Lowspeak 108: Oscar Asche = cash.
2002		Pete’s Aussie Sl. Home Page 🌐 Oscar Ash, Oscar Asche, Oscar Nash, Oscar, Okker: cash.
2013		T. Peacock More You Bet 67: ‘Money’ [...] might also be referred to as ‘cash’, or ‘coin’, or ‘oscar’, or ‘moolah’, or ‘notes’, or ‘bills’, or ‘chips’ or ‘brass’, or ‘dosh’, or ‘dough’, or ‘bread’, or ‘biscuits’, or ‘bullets’, or ‘ammunition’.