Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (US Und.) counterfeit banknotes; thus green goods business/game/racket/swindle, selling counterfeit money as ‘real’ money allegedly made from a plate stolen from the government; green goods man/merchant, a counterfeiter.

1887		G.W. Walling Recollections of a N.Y. Chief of Police n.p.: He [...] informs his prospective victim that he has a large quantity of ‘green goods’ (counterfeit money) of various denominations [DU].
1888		Troy Daily Times 3 Feb. n.p.: Driscoll was hung, but the green goodsman escaped, for the only proof against him was that he sold a quantity of paper cut in the shape of bills [...] [F&H].
1890		A.C. Gunter Miss Nobody of Nowhere 223: The janitor [...] states that in his opinion Stillman, Myth & Co. were in the ‘green-goods’ business.
1892		Atlanta Constitution 21 Dec. 9/1: There has been some [illegible] shipments of ‘green goods’ from Chicago and other cities [...] and there is an overproduction of the queer stuff and a consequent drag on the market.
1898		R.G. Ingersoll ‘A Reply to the New York Clergy’ N.Y. Journal n.p.: According to Mr. Campbell, the devil is the bunco steerer of the universe – king of the green goods men.
1901		J. Flynt World of Graft 94: The only grafts that ever really flourished, as the papers say, was the Tenderloin, the gamblin’ joints, an’ the queer* [*Green-goods].
1906		S. Ford Shorty McCabe 9: Being an easy talker, he might have been a book agent or a green goods distributor.
1909		‘The Lang. of Crooks’ in Wash. Post 20 June 4/2: [paraphrasing J. Sullivan] A green-goods man is one who sells worthless securities and who swindles poor people.
1916		J. Lait ‘Canada Kid’ in Beef, Iron and Wine (1917) 174: ‘Silk’ Tavannes, in his day the smoothest green goods steerer, the oiliest master of the tip and toss the West had known.
1927		(ref. to mid-late 19C) H. Asbury Gangs of N.Y. 193: They also offered excellent business opportunities to the gangs of banco, confidence, and green goods men, for this was the period [i.e. c.1870] when country-men actually bought gold bricks and counterfeit money. [Ibid.] 194: The green goods swindle, which was also called the sawdust game.
1932		L.E. Lawes Twenty Thousand Years in Sing Sing 172: He has sold gold bricks and ‘green goods’.
1933		Ersine Und. and Prison Sl. 41: green goods. A piece of counterfeit money. green goods merchant. A counterfeiter.
1946		(con. 1910s) J. Thompson Heed the Thunder (1994) 145: The news butch was in on the green-goods racket. He was a peddler of brass watches and glass diamonds. He sold marked cards and crooked dice. And almost always he sold whisky.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn) 107: green goods game Counterfeiting green goods man One who sells worthless securities [...] one who passes bogus money green goods worker One who sells false securities.
1951		D. Dressler Parole Chief 169: This was the week end when the ‘green goods’ was to be given to some smart lads for distribution.
1952		C. Hamilton Men of the Und. 164: The green goods game, a swindle involving the use of a fake money-making device.

2. paper currency.

1913		L. Light Modern Hobo 59: He was going to ‘rustle up’ a ‘five spot’ and send her the ‘green goods’ as a present. [Ibid.] 76: Didn’t you see that yegg man [...] brighten up when I produced the green goods.
c.1940		‘Barbara Hutton – 40,000,000 Nookie’ [comic strip] ‘So it won’t go up!’ ‘Wave some green goods in front of it!’.
2001		ONDCP Street Terms 11: Green goods — Paper currency.