Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (also bounce, buns, bunse, bunt, bunts) money (esp. for nothing); thus extras, bonuses, profits, whether monetary or otherwise.

1654		Witts Recreations Epigram No. 89: On Bunce. Money thou ow’st me; prethee fix a day For payment promis’d, though thou never pay.
1719		in D’Urfey Pills to Purge Melancholy V 278: If Cards come no better than those that are past, / Oh! oh! I shall lose all my Buns.
1812		Vaux Vocab. of the Flash Lang.
1859		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. 14: BUNTS, costermonger’s perquisites, the money obtained by giving light weight, &c; costermongers’ goods sold by boys on commission.
1861		(con. 1840s–50s) H. Mayhew London Labour and London Poor I 33/1: These are the ‘boys’ deputed to sell a man’s goods for a certain sum, all over the amount being the boys’ profit or ‘bunts’. [Ibid.] 470/1: A great number of boys [...] engaged by costermongers or small tradesmen to sell upon commission, or, as it is termed, for ‘bunse’.
1870		Hotten Sl. Dict. [as cit. 1859].
1877		A. Smith Street Life in London (1969) 47: Profits ain’t nothing like wot they was [...] a sight more things that’s got next to no ‘bounce’ – profit – ’cause every ‘swag’ sells them.
1881		A Chequered Career 270: In the stable, and particularly in the livery-stables, there is a box into which all tips are placed. This is called bunt [F&H].
1882		Dundee Courier (Scot.) 22 Aug. 7/4: The money obtained, however good the profit, was not all bunce.
1893		P.H. Emerson Signor Lippo 98: Blower lent him some bounce. [Ibid.] 100: That’s another [...] fifteen bob – so that’s a thirty-five bob bounce.
1894		Truth (Sydney) 24 June 1/4: Theer’s Bung, who ran a shanty once, / [...] / And eased the Bushy of his ‘bunce’.
1900		G.R. Sims In London’s Heart 236: My idea is that the bulk of this insurance money will be ‘bunce’.
1900		Truth (Sydney) 23 Dec. 8/2: Madame, she makes awl the prophet, / She’s a finger everywhere; / What she takes is bunce, commisshun.
1903		A. Binstead Pitcher in Paradise 193: Fifty each way Irena colt for the Coventry, an’ fifty up an’ down Clarehaven for the Stakes — all absolute bunce!
1906		E. Pugh Spoilers 231: Bungled the last job. An’ nothin’ since but booze and bounce.
1906		Marvel 10 Mar. 169: Peter gets all the bunse!
1907		Sun. Times (Perth) 30 June 4/7: I rode to town for the station mails. / And bagged good bunce from wallaby tails.
1909		W.H. Davies Beggars 148: This was certainly good, for it was all bunts (profit).
1916		T. Burke Limehouse Nights 124: Tip out the bunce, old sport.
1925		(con. WWI) Fraser & Gibbons Soldier and Sailor Words 39: Bunce: Something for nothing.
1932		D.L. Sayers Have His Carcase 435: That number-plate was pure bunce for them—they can scarcely have picked or wangled it on purpose.
1934		P. Allingham Cheapjack 206: We [...] got exactly what we wanted for eight shillings a gross. ‘That’s the sort of bunce I like,’ said Joe. ‘What about working them at a denar a time.’.
1935		X. Petulengro Romany Life 274: Bunce – Profits.
1937		J. Curtis There Ain’t No Justice 77: You wouldn’t have to give up your market work and the extra money would be all bunce.
1947		N. Streatfeild Grass in Piccadilly 100: ‘What do you do in the winter?’ ‘Anything with bunce.’.
1957		G. Kersh Fowlers End (2001) 32: In a silent ’all a showman’s nicest bit o’ bunce comes out o’ eatables.
1967		‘Whisper All Aussie Dictionary’ in Kings Cross Whisper (Sydney) xxxii 7/1: bunce: Fruit for the sideboard, same as pickings.
1979		F. Norman Too Many Crooks Spoil the Caper 38: There’s plenty of bunce around in this town for both of us.
1995		(con. 1860s) P. Ackroyd Dan Leno and the Limehouse Golem 56: The bustle. The bunce. The money.
2000		J.J. Connolly Layer Cake 2: This particular half-key is just pure bunce.
2013		K. Sampson Killing Pool 184: Talking brewsters here, stacks and stacks of cellophane-wrapped bunce.

2. (UK Und.) stolen goods.

1968

J. Barlow Burden of Proof 88: The East End had its own codes [...] work in the docks, the bunce off lorries.

3. (UK Und.) a commission, a payment for services rendered.

2011

J.J. Connolly Viva La Madness 71: Ted had eyes and ears all over the Home Counties who got a bunce if any work they put up paid off.