Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (also teaster, teston, testone, texter) sixpence.

1577		Holinshed Description of England (1807) 366: [Elizabeth] restored sundrie coines of fine siluer, as peeces of halfepenie farding, of a penie, of three halfe pence, peeces of two pence, of three pence, of foure pence (called the groat) of sixpence, vsuallie named the testone.
1595		Maroccus Extaticus C3: With this stock of wenches will this Trustie Roger and his Bettrice set up forsooth with their pamphlet pots, and stewed prunes, nine for a tester, in a sinfull saucer.
1598		Jonson Every Man In his Humour III iv: You cannot give him less than a shilling in conscience, for the book he had it out cost him a teston in the least.
1609		Dekker Gul’s Horne-Booke 26: After dinner, euery man as his busines leades him [...] some to lende testers in Powles.
1613		Middleton Chaste Maid in Cheapside I i: Go, thou art an old fox, there’s a tester for thee.
1633		T. Heywood Eng. Traveller IV i: In the next Tauerne, there’s the Cash that’s left, Goe, health it freely [...] Nay Drowne it all, let not a Teaster scape To be consum’d in rot-gut.
1640		H. Mill Nights Search I 49: Where thou doth get a tester, I get five.
1642		J. Taylor St Hillarie’s Teares 3: The surly Tipstaves [...] for the teaster you gave him, kisses his hand and scrapes you a leg.
1653		Urquhart (trans.) Gargantua and Pantagruel (1927) I Bk II 311: Because of that make bold to clip the shillings and testers.
1662		Fuller Worthies (1840) III 7: A coin worth sixpence, corruptly called tester.
1678		J. Ray Proverbs (2nd edn) 58: He that looseth his wife and sixpence, hath lost a tester.
c.1687		‘Mac O Bonniclabbero of Drogheda’ Bog Witticisms XXX 34: The Gentleman, to be rid of him, threw him a Tester.
1690		‘Teague’ Teagueland Jests I 84: The Gentleman, to be rid of him, threw hima tester.
1696		Motteux (trans.) Gargantua and Pantagruel (1927) II Bk V 540: A common mumper, to whom we had given half a teston.
1699		Farquhar Love and a Bottle I i: Who throws away a Tester and a Mistress loses six-pence.
1700		T. Brown Amusements Serious and Comical in Works (1744) III 27: Squeezing his brains into an amorous cit’s pockets, in hopes of a tester to buy himself a dinner.
1704		S. Centlivre Gamester Act IV: You owe me a Teaster.
1709		Cibber Rival Fools I i: Not a single Tester.
1715		‘Nickydemus Ninnyhammer’ Homer in a nut-shell 28: So are our Wives, who now grow stale, / And for a Tester turn up tail.
1733		in J. Malcolm Anecdotes of Manners and Customs (1808) 89: The particular saucy impudent behaviour of the coachman in demanding the other twelver or tester above their fare, has been the occasion of innumerable quarrels, fighting, and abuses.
1738		Swift Polite Conversation 46: Yes, Madam, for they say, he that has lost his Wife and Sixpence, has lost a Tester.
1748		Smollett Roderick Random (1979) 11: While I have a shilling, thou shan’t want a tester.
1765		Foote The Commissary 5: I hope you’ll tip me the tester to drink.
c.1770		‘A New Song’ in Holloway & Black I (1975) 198: I’ll lay any Scotchman a tester.
1782		Hants Chron. 7 Oct. 4/1: You gave me nine-pence and a silver tester.
1790		M.P. Andrews Better Late than Never 47: Thomas pay the coachman sixpence, councillor Coazem pays the other tester.
1800		M. Edgeworth Castle Rackrent (1832) 91: I’ll lay you a hundred golden guineas to a tester you don’t.
c.1810		‘The Humours of Rag Fair’ in Holloway & Black I (1975) 118: You may have them for a tester.
1812		Spirit of Irish Wit 261: If I have a hog, / A smelt, a George, or a tester.
1821		‘An Amateur’ Real Life in London II 38: Detailing, to his great annoyance, a story of an hour long about a tester (sixpence).
1825		Pierce Egan’s Life in London 28 Aug. 243/2: I never had; in the whole course of my life, than three hogs and a tester at one time, and such a sum as five shillings was never heard of in the county I came from.
1829		Australian (Sydney) 12 May 3/5: The wife of his bosom, he said, was most affectionately addicted to tippling [...] whenever she could muster a tester she indulged her ‘itch’.
1835		G. Kent Modern Flash Dict.
1845		J.B. Buckstone Green Bushes I i: For a tester, you are sure to win an iligant pair of garters.
1859, 1860		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc.
1863		G.A. Sala Strange Adventures of Captain Dangerous 280: No one shall say that Billy Blokes ever robbed a Messmate of even a twopenny tester of his Rights.
1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict.
1877		‘The Connaught College’ Laughing Songster 132: I hould you a testher he doesn’t know him from Adam.
1881		Newcastle Courant 2 Dec. 6/6: ‘How much is it?’ ‘Tray beong say saltee’ [...] ‘Three and a texter.’ ‘Three and sixpemnce if you please’.
1881		Morn. Bulletin (Rockhampton, Qld) 18 July 2/6: For our next coin in value [i.e. sixpence] twenty names are found [...] ‘Fyebuck,’ ‘half-hog,’ ‘kick,’ ‘lord of the manor,’ ‘pig,’ ‘pot,’ ‘say saltee,' ’sprat,’ ‘snid,’ ‘simon,’ ‘sow's baby,’ ’tanner,’ tester,’ and ‘tizzy’.
1895		Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 84: Tester, a sixpence.
1901		Argus (Melbourne) 20 Sept. 6/4: The sixpence Ines many aliases, such as half a deaner, a syebuck, and a tester.
1905		Exeter & Plymouth Gaz. 4 Feb. 5/6: A sixpence [...] has been a ‘tester‘ [...] a ‘lord-of-the-manor,’ a ‘bender’ and a ‘cripple’’.
1922		Joyce Ulysses 380: If he had but gotten into him a mess of broken victuals or a platter of tripes with a bare tester in his purse he could always bring himself off with his tongue.
1997		Share Slanguage.

2. (Aus.) 25 strokes of the lash [reflects the association of numbers of lashes with denominations of coins].

1853		J. Lang Botany Bay 40: By the way, there were slang terms applied to these doses of the lash: twenty-five was called a ‘tester’; fifty, a ‘bob’; seventy-five, a ‘bull’; and a hundred a ‘canary.’.
1906		(con. early 19C) Cobargo Chron. (NSW) 2 Nov. 4/2: There were slang terms applied to these doses of the lash; twenty-five was called a ‘tester;’ fifty ‘a bob;’ seventy five ‘a bull’ and a hundred a ‘canary’.
1945		Baker Aus. Lang. 44: Nor, though they are formed on English slang terms for coins, are [recorded] tester, a flogging of twenty-five lashes (also known as a Botany Bay dozen).