Counterfeiter's slang, 1822

[George Thompson]

This is a nice little tidbit, adding to my previous contributions to the history of the slang of copunterfeiting, which I must admit are quite as widely known and as well appreciated as they deserve to be.

[trial of Charles. B. Gardner, "for having in possession forged bank notes, knowing them to be such, and intending to pass them"; had been arrested in the raid on Ward's Island; was seen to take out of his pocket and put down a pocket book containing counterfeit bills and] some curious memoranda, or business entries, in a laughable kind of slang dialect they have, and all tending to evince his guilt.  One entry ran somewhat as follows:--
        "N. York, Aug.
                "Rec'd of the Old Man, 300 queers.
                "6th Shoved -- -- 5
                "8th Shoved -- -- 10"
        Hays, who was called on to assist in explaining the novel lingo, said, that by queer, among the fraternity, was meant counterfeit money, and the same as cogniac.  300 queers, or cogniac, would therefore read, in English, 300 dollars.  By shove, in the next item, was meant to get off a bad bill, without detection.  Gardner, therefore, according to his entries, had already shoved, or gotten handsomely rid of, 15 of the 300 dollars, the last batch received.
        Commercial Advertiser, September 10, 1822, p. 2, cols. 2-3.

GAT

George A. Thompson
Author of A Documentary History of "The African
Theatre", Northwestern Univ. Pr., 1998.