Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(US black) paper money, dollar bills.

1942		R. Mulvey ‘Pitchman’s Cant’ in AS XVII:1 Pt 2 Apr. 91/2: green folding. Money (bills). ‘Before he left, he crossed my palm with silver and the green folding.’.
1942		‘Marienne’ ‘Solid Meddlin’’ in People’s Voice (NY) 4 Aprr. 30/1: [S]marties are asking Daddy for some of those foldin’ bills to frock their brown-skinned frames.
1949		R. Chandler Little Sister n.p.: Just put this hunk of the folding green back in your saddle bag and forget you ever met me.
1951		N.Y. Age 29 Dec. 2/1: Cogman [...] entered a delicatessen at 3317 Third Ave. Bronx [...] with plans to line his pockets with good old-fashioned folding paper.
1955		N. Pulliam I Travelled a Lonely Land (1957) 22: If the Aussie has it, you can get it, and without the crisp crackle of the folding green, which the American is callously accustomed to using throughout his travels.
1958		R. Prather Scrambled Yeggs 25: The guy paying for my superlative services could well afford it; he had plenty of the folding green.
1971		N. Smith Gumshoe (1998) 25: The folding green [...] Money. Twenty dollars a day plus expenses.
1976		L. Dawson The Spy Who Came... 46: ‘I will show my appreciation with two hundred pounds.’ For that kind of folding matter I would have [etc].
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