Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. one pound, one sovereign [= quid n. (3)].

1897		Mirror of Life 10 Feb. 3/2: Bill Button has settled the action he had about his dog biting a man for eight saucepan lids—quids.
1908		Proc. Old Bailey 3 Mar. 754: ‘We can get a mouthpiece for three saucepans’ (that is a slang term for sovereigns).
1950		P. Hoskins No Hiding Place! 191/2: Saucepan Lid. £1 note .
1960		J. Franklyn Dict. of Rhy. Sl.
1969		S.T. Kendall Up the Frog 12: Shove this saucepan lid in yer sky rocket.
1979		R. Barker Fletcher’s Book of Rhy. Sl. 25: Here is a saucepan lid – go and buy food.
1981		P. Wright Cockney Dialect and Sl. 104: saucepan lid ‘quid’.

2. money, esp. in pl. [= dibbs n.].

1909

(ref. to 1880) J. Ware Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era 151/2: Heap o’ saucepan lids (Rhyming, 1880). Rhyming with dibs-money.

3. (also saucepan) a child [= kid n.¹ (1)].

1912		Sport (Adelaide) 19 Oct. 13/4: They Say [...] Whose saucepan lid was that Curly had on the horses on Sunday?
1952		Argus (Melbourne) 13 June 4s/3: I promised the cheese and kisses I’d take the saucepan lids to the fleas and itches.
1960		J. Franklyn Dict. of Rhy. Sl.
1974		‘P.B. Yuill’ Hazell Plays Solomon (1976) 78: What’s your feelings on having your saucepan lid confiscated by a total stranger?
1975		‘P.B. Yuill’ Hazell and the Three-card Trick (1977) 47: Love to Sharon and the saucepans.
1981		B. Hoy ‘Uncle George’ in Wright Cockney Dial. and Sl. (1981) 108: Yer couldn’t afford to be choosy, / Yer’d work till you dropped for a quid / For yer trouble an’ strife / And to keep bref o’ life / In a blitherin’ young saucepan-lid.
2000		N. Griffiths Grits 284: An then those nippas oo was thair — dja rememba the saucepans?
2001		M. Coles Bible in Cockney 14: Her saucepan lids and their descendants, and your saucepan lids and their descendants are always gonna be enemies.
2005		P. Howard Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nightdress 26: What would the chaps say if they found out that your son has a working-class saucepan?

4. a tease, a ‘leg-pull’ [= kid n.² (3)].

1960

J. Franklyn Dict. Rhy. Sl.

5. a Jew [= Yid n.¹ ].

1962

F. Norman Guntz 9: The saucepan lid worked me very hard and had plenty of goes at me.