Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. money.

1893		San Bernardino Dly Courier 2 Mar. 2/2: [T]he mystical Colonel Mazuma, who haunts the lobby of the capital with a well-filled sack.
1900		T.J. Carey Hebrew Yarns and Dialect Humor 89/1: But nefer mind — he maigs us crin, / Ant I haf hoid a rumor; / Besides his chokes, he also maigs / A lot of real ‘mazooma’.
1902		‘Billy Burgundy’ Toothsome Tales Told in Sl. 33: He annexed himself to a mammoth mass of mazuma by the refined process of inheritance.
1904		G.V. Hobart Jim Hickey 14: We're a sad bunch of ploughboys on this old farm of a world when we haven’t a little mazume in the vest pocket.
1905		‘Hugh McHugh’ You Can Search Me 19: We’ll simply put up a thousand each [...] and after the opening night begin to gather in the mazooboes.
1906		‘O. Henry’ ‘Mammon and the Archer’ in Four Million (1915) 132: Don’t forget to burn a few punk sticks in the joss house to the great god Mazuma from time to time.
1907		Quad City Times (Davenport, IA) 17 Nov. 9/1: The upstate yoekel [sic] [...] unbuckling his mazume.
1912		J. London Smoke Bellew (1926) 61: Oh, they are real hummers, your boss and mine, when it comes to sheddin’ the mazuma an’ never mindin’ other folks’ feelin’s.
1914		Ade ‘The New Fable of the Lonesome Camp’ in Ade’s Fables 261: After [...] the Collectors had brought in the Dinero, then Elam had to sit at a Mahogany Desk [...] and figure how much of the hard-earned Mazuma would be doled out to his greedy Employees.
1924		F.J. Wilstach Sl. Dict. Stage 29: ‘Mazum,’ ‘mazuma,’ ‘cush,’ ‘denoya,’ ‘rocks,’ ‘spons,’ ‘spondulix,’ ‘long green,’ ‘yellowbacks,’ ‘dough,’ ‘mononny,’ ‘da mon’.
1924		Truth (Brisbane) 27 Apr. 5/7: 'Come across with the mazums; come clean, divvy. I want the coin, see?’.
1929		R.E. Howard ‘Pit of the Serpent’ Fight Stories July 🌐 This house used to be owned by a crazy Spaniard with more mazuma than brains.
1933		C. Drew ‘Sledgehammer Joe’ in Bulletin (Sydney) 19 July 48/3: ‘If you do what I tell you, we’ll pick up a pinch of change.’ ‘Change?’ ‘Yes. Change, chips, mazuma’.
1936		A.E. Duckett ‘Truckin ’round Brooklyn’ in N.Y. Age 18 July 7/1: Others dragging in the mazuma with holiday jobs (white collar species).
1946		S. Jackson An Indiscreet Guide to Soho 62: When we’ve got enough of the mazuma I’m gonna open a fish and chipper.
1949		L. Glassop Lucky Palmer 34: This ‘Lolly’s’ a beauty [...] He comes up here one night and blows down my ear about all the mazooma he’s won.
1951		M. Spillane One Lonely Night 68: You’ve brought in a lot of mazuma.
1958		(con. 1950) E. Frankel Band of Brothers 319: While you’re out there, fighting for mom’s apple pie, your A-hole buddy [...] is raking in the old mazooma.
1964		P. Highsmith Two Faces of January (1988) 213: ‘He’s got a lot of mazuma, eh?’ Niko asked dreamily.
1967		J. Wynnum I’m a Jack, All Right 21: If it’s just the mazooma that’s worrying you, don’t be too proud to say so.
1968		A. Burgess Enderby Outside in Complete Enderby (2002) 305: Mazooma for pozzy, as my dad used to say. Died at Gallipoli.
1974		D. Ireland Burn 65: All you need now is the mazuma, the dough, the lettuce, the gelt, the loot, the spondulicks.
1980		(con. 1930s) Barltrop & Wolveridge Muvver Tongue 17: ‘Mazuma’ was sometimes used, more often by the film and radio comedians than the public.
1989		R. McDonald Rough Wallaby 210: A supply of betting money was a ‘mazuma’.
2004		T. Dorsey Cadillac Beach 189: On the other side, a man was pacing. [...] Talking to himself: ‘Need to run down the Chinese angle on the shylock’s mazuma [...]’.
2015		T. Pluck ‘Letters to Santa’ in Life During Wartime (2018) 86: He’d want mezuma, which I didn’t have.

2. a dollar bill.

1968

I. Reed Free-Lance Pallbearers 49: ‘That’ll be five mazumas.’ I shoved the bills into his hand.