flips and gasmeters

[Douglas G. Wilson]

>... Slim answers "I lay a couple of flips on ya, that's a killer?"  Slam
>says "I need a couple of gasmeters".

I can't find any trace of either of these words.

Here are my unsupported speculations.

"Flip" should be a contraction of "flipper", taken as equivalent to "fin" =
"five-dollar bill". Maybe this was less arcane at the time.

I don't think coin-operated gasmeters were ever usual in the US (though
they may have existed). I think when one pictures a gasmeter he pictures a
meter face with three or four little circles ... so "gasmeter" should be a
big bill, with a row of zeroes ... probably a $1000 bill -- or "G-note"
("G" for "gasmeter" of course).

-- Doug Wilson