Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (orig. Ling. Fr./Polari; later Aus./N.Z.) one shilling (5p) thus half a deener, sixpence(2½ p), money in general.

[1593		; also attrib (see cite 1913)Shakespeare Taming of the Shrew ind.: host.: You wll not pay for the glasses you have burst? sly.: No, not a denier].
[1619		Fletcher Monsieur Thomas (1639) I ii: No money, no more money Monsieur Launcelot, Not a deneere, sweet Signior].
[1620		‘Song of the Beggar’ in Farmer Musa Pedestris (1896) 14: Still doe I cry, good your Worship good sir, / Bestow one small Denire, Sir].
1839		H. Brandon Dict. of the Flash or Cant Lang. 162/2: Deaner – a shilling (country phrase).
1855		Yokel’s Preceptor 30: Denaly, Money.
1857		J. Archbold Magistrate’s Assistant (3rd edn) 444: Shilling, Deaner, also twelver.
1861		(con. 1840s–50s) H. Mayhew London Labour and London Poor I 313/1: I’ll give you a deuce o’ deeners (two shillings). [Ibid.] III 49/2: What quanta denare have you chafered?
1864		Times 12 October, 11/6: One woman said where’s the deaner? [F&H].
1865		Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 21/1: You have ‘munged’ (begged) six ‘deeners’ already. [Ibid.] 44/1: Those among them who had been repeatedly importuned by him for the loan of a ‘tanner,’ were often obliged to ‘sling’ him the whisper for the loan of a ‘deenir’.
1879		‘Autobiog. of a Thief’ in Macmillan’s Mag. (London) XL 501: I had been down three or four days running and could not buy anything to earn a deaner (shilling) out of.
1882		Sydney Sl. Dict. 10/1: A bludger and his mot ’ticed a cully into them ‘Deadhouse,’ and while he was parting for the booze buzzed him of three caser and a deaner. A man who robs in company with a prostitute and his woman enticed a victim into the ‘Dead-house’ [...] and while he was paying for the drinks picked his pocket of three crowns and a sixpence.
1886		W. Newton Secrets of Tramp Life Revealed 9: Deaner or Midget ... One Shilling.
1886		Glen Innes Examiner (NSW) 26 Oct.6/1: ‘Oh, I s’pose he’s “broke” and couldn’t “part” his “deeners” to the dress-suckle’ .
1887		‘Dagonet’ ‘A Plank Bed Ballad ’ (in Referee 12 Feb.) n.p.: My trip – cuss the day as I seen her – / She sold off my home to some pals in her mob, / For a couple of foont and ten deener.
1893		P.H. Emerson Signor Lippo 98: Good God! It’s all the deener I’ve got.
1895		Truth (Sydney) 5 May 5/7: We got schwei-diener’s worth of three-star brandy.
1895		Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 23: Deaner, a shilling.
1897		Mirror of Life 28 July 3/3: Bill and Jack have plenty of health, but they do not speak luminously of ‘Plenty denare!’ .
1897		W.T. Goodge ‘Great Aus. Slanguage’ in Baker Aus. Lang. (1945) 117: And his naming of the coinage / Is a mystery to some, / With his quid and half-a-caser / And his deener and his scrum.
1899		A. Binstead Houndsditch Day by Day 25: A third o’ what it cost three months ago—fourteen deena.
1900		Bulletin (Sydney) 5 May 14/2: At Blunt’s station you get a deener (shilling) but no tucker. At Smith’s you get a pannikin of dust (flour).
1901		Argus (Melbourne) 20 Sept. 6/4: The sixpence Ines many aliases, such as half a deaner, a syebuck, and a tester.
1906		E. Pugh Spoilers 7: Brassin’ up my deaner for a chair.
1914		E. Pugh Cockney At Home 164: An’ he parkered wi’ denari like a boy with his fust gal.
1919		E. Dyson ‘The Moralist’ in ‘Hello, Soldier!’ 92: A dollar or a deener for the pore hafflict dear.
1919		C.H. Thorp Handful of Ausseys 163: Coul yer lend us [...] a deena, cobber?
1927		Smith’s Wkly (Sydney) 20 Aug. 11/2: Slanguage [...] Arithy. If hot dogs are a deaner a dozen at the fish and chip shop, and a bloke drifts in with ’arf a dollar in his kick, how many eats does he get? Answer to the nearest scrum.
1931		‘English Und. Sl.’ in Variety 8 Apr. n.p.: Deener or chip—shilling.
1933		‘George Orwell’ Down and Out in Complete Works I (1986) 176: These (omitting the ones that everyone knows) are some of the cant words now used in London: [...] A deaner – a shilling.
1934		P. Allingham Cheapjack 206: ‘That’s the sort of bunce I like,’ said Joe. ‘What about working them at a denar a time.’.
1935		Thieves Slang ms list from District Police Training Centre, Ryton-on-Dunsmore, Warwicks n.p.: DEaner: One shilling.
1938		L. Ortzen Down Donkey Row 12: Diener – Shilling. [Ibid.] 24: I always paid the sarge regular last year [...] all the bobbies knew I was good for a few deiners.
1940		J.G. Brandon Gang War 21: I’d lay a thahsand nikker to a denari – if I ’ed ’em – that this ’ere bloke will come aht top!
1941		V. Davis Phenomena in Crime 253: Dieners. Shillings. Sixpence and three-penny bit called ‘sprats’ and sprazis.
1941		F. Sargeson ‘That Summer’ in Coll. Stories (1965) 167: I’m on the beach myself, I said, but I can make it a deener.
1949		L. Glassop Lucky Palmer 189: Get the bet down right, Spiro. This is going to cost you thirty deeners.
1953		D. Cusack Caddie 217: Me clobbers already in Moscow [...] I’m blowed if I know, but there don’t seem nuthin’ a man can raise a deaner on.
1957		‘Nino Culotta’ They’re a Weird Mob (1958) 118: Bill’s goin’ round collectin’ subs. Ten deaners a head.
1957		D. Niland Call Me When the Cross Turns Over (1958) 100: Come on, four shots for a deener on the knock-em!
1959		I. & P. Opie Lore and Lang. of Schoolchildren (1977) 175: One shilling is a ‘bob’, ‘dienner’, or ‘thumber’.
1962		F. Norman Guntz 36: All you [...] little lambs sitting in your tiny gaffs watching the gas fire eating up your last deaner.
1968		S. Gore Holy Smoke 31: Can’t we even have a bit of a shivoo for the kid without you lookin’ as if you’d lost a deener and only found a zack?
1973		(con. 1930s) F. Huelin ‘Keep Moving’ 1: Might get an odd deener choppin’ wood or diggin’ a garden at some of the big houses.
1976		(ref. to 1930s) R. Barnes Coronation Cups and Jam Jars 207: Deana – Shilling.
1999		G. Seal Lingo 36: Some [words], like deener for a shilling, are only relatively recently obsolete, due to the changeover from sterling to decimal currency in 1966.
2011		J.J. Connolly Viva La Madness 44: She ain’t got a deano. Her money’s run out.
2013		T. Peacock More You Bet 6: An army of thrifty housewives [...] could have a ‘zack’ (that is, sixpence), or a ‘deaner’ or a ‘bob’ (that is, one shilling) ‘each-way’.
2019		P. Baker Fabulosa 291/1: deaner, deener, dener, diener shilling.

2. attrib. use of sense 1.

1905		Sporting Times 15 Apr. 2/3: The doc at the deener dispensary said it was a bit beyond him an’ that Daddy had better see a West-end specialist.
1913		Sport (Adelaide) 3 May 12/2: They Say [...] That Ticker B. must have had a win at the races [...] for he was in the deener seats at the pictures.

3. (US) ten cents.

1960, 1975

Wentworth & Flexner DAS 144/1: deaner n. A dime [10c.].